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/U.  Ao.  I2- 


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MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


The  Teachers  College 
Its  Place  in 

the  Educational  System 

By  J.  O.  Evjeu,  Ph.  D. 

President  State  Normal  School 
Mayville,  North  Dakota 


THE  WINTER  TERM  BEGINS  MONDAY,  JANUARY  3,  1921 
THE  SPRING  TERM  BEGINS  TUESDAY,  MARCH  29 


Published  in  March,  June,  September  and  December  by  the 
State  Normal  School  at  Mayville,  N.  D.,  and  entered  at  -the 
Mayville  Postoffice  November  15,  1912,  as  second-class  matter 
under  act  of  August  24,  1912. 


The  Teachers  College 
Its  Place  in  the  Educational  System 

By  J.  0.  EVJEN,  Ph.  D. 

President  State  Normal  School,  Mayville,  N.  Dak. 

A  teachers  college  is  a  normal  school  that  has  attained  its 
majority,  receiving  high  school  graduates,  training  them  for 
four  years  in  cultural  and  professional  subjects,  qualifying 
them  to  teach  in  the  public  schools,  kindergarten,  “grades, ” 
or  “high, ”  and  granting  them  in  evidence  of  scholarship  and 
didactic  proficiency  a  college  degree. 

The  designation  “normal  school”  is  verging  on  the  obso¬ 
lete.  As  we  no  longer  write  books  on  “Schoolkeeping,”  but 
on  i  1  Education  ”  or  “  Administration, 9 9  we  may  in  the  near 
future  cease  to  discuss  the  “normal  school”  in  order  to  hear 
so  much  the  more  about  the  “teachers  college.” 

The  name  of  normal  school  (model  or  pattern  school)  was 
sponsored  by  Austria  as  early  as  1774.  It  reecived  a  new  lease 
of  life  at  the  hands  of  France  in  1795,  which  succeeded  in 
getting  a  passport  for  it  to  other  Romance  languages  and  to 
the  English  tongue.  Germany  prefers  now  the  term  “Lehrer- 
seminar”  (teachers ?  seminary);  Norway  “laererskole ”  (teach¬ 
ers ?  school);  Denmark,  Finland,  Sweden  likewise  prefer  the 
teutonized  to  the  Romance  designation.  Our  country,  too,  is 
gradually  getting  away  from  the  French  usage.  France  speaks 
consistently  of  its  Ecoles  normales  primaires  and  superieures. 
America,  however,  differentiates  between  the  average  normal 
school  and  the  “school  of  education”  in  a  university.  What 
France  calls  Ecole  normale  superieure,  a  department  of  the 
university  at  Paris,  Germans  and  Scandinavians  call  a  seminar 
in  pedagogy,  while  we  in  current  usage  would  term  it  a  uni¬ 
versity  school  of  education.  Since  the  name  of  teachers  col¬ 
lege  is  also  increasingly  asserting  itself,  “normal  school”  may 
soon  become  a  technical  term  of  the  past. 

A  change  in  name  often  implies  more  than  what  is  nominal. 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


3 


When  the  normal  school  assumes  the  name  of  teachers  college 
it  means  that  this  type  of  school  will  be  a  professional  training 
school  for  teachers  in  our  entire  public  school  system,  giving 
a  four  years  ’  college  training  with  the  emphasis  on  the  vocation 
of  teaching. 

At  present  there  is  a  strong  movement  to  convert  all  of  our 
normal  schools  into  teachers  colleges.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
specialized  training  in  methodology  and  education  imparted 
in  the  old-fashioned  normal  means  to  live  on  restricted  diet 
rather  than  on  the  wholesome  fare  of  a  college  mater,  even 
as  given  to  a  freshman  or  a  sophomore. 


CHANGES  IN  THE  NORMAL  SCHOOLS  IN  NORTHERN 
AND  CENTRAL  EUROPE 

The  countries  in  Europe  have  gradually  been  bettering 
their  normal  schools  in  order  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  rest 
of  the  public  school  system.  Sweden,  which  has  the  best  public 
school  system  in  the  world  in  so  far  as  the  grades  are  con¬ 
cerned,  has  built  fine  normal  schools  and  equipped  them  most 
magnificently.  It  has  fifteen  state  normal  schools,  of  which 
nine  are  for  men,  and  six  for  women.  These  schools  offer 
four-year  courses.  What  they  have  done  for  gymnastics  and 
manual  training  constitutes  a  most  worthy  and  valuable  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  cause  of  Education,  not  to  mention  their  well- 
balanced  curricula  and  efficient  teaching  technique.  Denmark, 
which  has  the  best  uniformly  evolved  school  system  from  the 
kindergarten  to  the  university,  has  only  four  state  normal 
schools  (for  men),  but  sixteen  private  (four  for  women,  two 
for  men,  ten  coeducational).  It  has  raised  its  normal  school 
standards  very  much  since  1894,  now  requiring  three  years’ 
normal  school  training  after  one  year’s  practical  experience 
in  teaching.  Germany,  which  before  the  war  had  the  highest 
developed  system  of  university  education,  was  steadily  improv¬ 
ing  its  normal  schools  and  smoothing  the  path  of  their  alumni 
to  the  university,  which  in  that  country,  unlike  ours,  is  a  purely 
postgraduate  institution. 


4 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS  IN  GERMANY 

Before  discussing  the  place  of  the  teachers  college  in  our 
own  educational  system,  it  may  be  well  to  dwell  a  little  longer 
on  the  normal  school  situation  in  the  country  we  looked  to 
when  we  put  the  normal  school  on  our  own  soil — Germany. 

Of  the  German  states  dealing  with  the  normal  school 
problem,  Prussia,  which  is  one-half  of  Germany  in  area  and  in 
population,  had,  in  1914,  186  state  normal  schools;  that  is, 
considering  the  proportion  of  population,  and  making  also  due 
allowance  for  our  ‘‘schools  of  education,”  more  than  twice  as 
many  normal  schools  as  in  the  United  States.  These  schools 
give  three  years  of  preparatory  work  followed  by  three  years 
of  normal  school  work  proper,  the  equivalent  of  what  a  junior 
in  our  average  college  has  received.  In  1806,  Prussia  had  only 
eleven  normal  schools;  in  1826,  twenty-eight;  in  1837,  forty- 
five;  in  1906,  138;  and  in  1914,  as  stated,  186 — a  remarkable 
increase.  The  teachers  graduating  from  these  institutions  teach 
in  the  “grades.”  They  are  required  to  study  a  foreign  lan¬ 
guage;  this  requirement  alone,  independent  of  the  general  re¬ 
quirements,  indicates  that  it  takes  more  to  satisfy  Prussia,  in 
selecting  teachers  for  her  “grades,”  than  it  does  to  satisfy  our 
own  country. 

Bavaria  has  forty  normal  schools,  requiring  a  six-year  course 
of  study.  Its  graduates  can  take  up  postgraduate  university 
work. 

Saxony  has  the  best  system  of  normal  schools,  twenty-five 
in  number.  They  offer  a  seven-year  course,  the  seventh  year 
having  been  added  in  1915.  Their  graduates  can  enter  the 
university  proper.  The  standard  curriculum,  of  seven  years, 
embraces,  as  compulsory  subjects,  religious  nurture,  German, 
Latin,  French  (or  English),  geography,  history,  botany,  zoology, 
anthropology,  mineralogy,,  physics,  chemistry,  arithmetic  (cov¬ 
ering  algebra  also),  geometry,,  psychology,  philosophic  pro- 
paedeutics,  pedagogy,  music,  singing,  writing,  drawing,  stenog¬ 
raphy,  manual  training,  physical  education.  These  schools 
average  twenty  instructors  a  piece,  two-thirds  of  their  number 
must  have  “akademische  Bildung,  ”  from  three  to  four  years 
of  postgraduate  work,  a  requirement  which  no  normal  school 
in  the  United  States  meets. 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


5 


The  graduate  of  one  of  these  normal  schools  in  Saxony, 
V olksschullehrer  as  he  is  called  when  employed  as  teacher, 
has,  for  instance,  a  better  training  in  German  than  the  German 
gymnasium  (college)  graduate;  he  is  also  superior  to  the  latter 
in  general  knowledge  of  history,  but  he  is  not  prepared  as  is 
the  gymnasium  graduate  to  do  research  work.  He  takes  a  pride 
in  his  profession,  makes  it  a  permanent  vocation.  He  is  as 
educated  as  the  B.  A.  from  the  American  teachers  college.  Of 
late  it  has  been  repeatedly  held  forth  in  Germany  that  the 
normals,  like  the  gymnasium  (college),  should  be  “preparatory 
institutions  for  scholarly  thinking.”  This  would  guard  the 
normal  school  graduate  against  overrating  the  value  of  dog¬ 
matic  knowledge  and  of  sine  qua  non  judgment.  The  restraint 
of  a  real  scholar  can  only  be  attained  by  educating  students 
to  see  that  knowledge  is  seeking  rather  than  possessing. 

These  data  indicate  that  even  Germany,  which  is  generally 
regarded  as  educationally  aristocratic,  pays  more  attention  to 
the  training  of  school  teachers  in  the  elementary  school  than 
does  our  own  United  States.  Of  course,  it  must  not  be  for¬ 
gotten  that  Germany  reckons  with  the  fact  that  ninety  per 
cent  of  her  population  is  trained  in  her  public  schools. 


PROFESSIONAL  CONSCIOUSNESS 

The  German  normal  school  graduates  are  very  conscious  of 
their  worth  and  worthiness  as  an  estate.  They  have  not  been 
successful  in  getting  large  increases  in  salary,  but  they  have 
persistently  and  successfully  presented  their  demands  for  intel¬ 
lectual  recognition  to  the  government.  They  have  become 
rather  dictatorial,  and  the  movement  they  incorporate  is  helped 
along  mainly  by  an  unwarrantable  conception  of  their  position 
as  a  separate  estate.  Their  shibboleth  is:  The  school  is  the 
business  of  pedagogues  alone.  They  seem  to  ignore  the  sub¬ 
stance  and  aim  of  school,  which,  as  a  later  social  form,  is 
an  auxiliary  to  the  more  original  forms  of  family  and  state. 
They  build  too  exclusively  on  material  knowledge  and  tech¬ 
nical  ability,  and  are  inclined  to  demand  complete  independence 
in  their  relation  to  parent  and  state.  This  is  exemplified  in 
the  acute  combat  that  is  going  on  in  Saxony  between  some  public 


6 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


school  teachers  on  the  one  side  who  refuse  to  retain  the  teach¬ 
ing  of  religion  in  the  curriculum,  and,  on  the  other  side,  the 
friends  of  the  church,  numbering  theologians,  jurists,  philos¬ 
ophers  and  physicians,  whose  deeper  training  have  taught  them 
the  dignity  and  worth  of  religion  as  the  “root  of  all  life, ” 
as  the  eminent  professor  of  philosophy,  Rudolph  Eucken,  so 
admirably  puts  it. 


THE  VALUE  OF  POSITIVE  SCIENCES  IN  EDUCATION 

To  America,  where  the  cry  is  being  raised  that  only  normal 
school  graduates  should  teach  in  the  public  school,  including 
the  high  school,  the  cocksure  assertiveness  of  the  German  Volks- 
sehullehrer  ought  to  be  a  warning.  Fortunately,  pedagogic 
dogmatism,  illustrated  in  these  teachers,  is,  as  stated,  com¬ 
bated  by  the  wholesome  sense  of  eminent  representatives  of 
the  positive  branches  of  law,  medicine,  theology,  who  have 
received  a  solid  professional  training  on  top  of  an  excellent 
college  training,  so  unlike  many  of  our  short  cut  paths  to 
theology,  medicine  or  law,  taken  by  a  majority  of  our  students. 
This  dogmatism  is  further  combated  by  representatives  of 
these  professions  who  have  been  appointed  instructors  in  the 
normals  and  made  colleagues  of  the  teachers  of  the  purely 
normal  school  brand. 

The  majority  of  our  high  school  teachers  are  “college  bred. ” 
Normal  school  people  think  that  they  should  be  “teachers  col¬ 
lege  bred, ”  on  the  basis  that  the  teacher  in  a  high  school 
needs  normal  school  training  fully  as  much  as  the  teacher  in 
the  grades.  However,  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  neither 
“college  bred*'  (euphemistically  “university  bred*’)  nor 
“teachers  college  bred”  will  ultimately  do  justice  to  the  high 
school.  The  taunt  of  the  college  bred  against  the  average 
normal  school  graduates,  that  they  are  half-baked,  may  be 
turned  against  himself.  For,  the  college  graduate,  compared 
with  the  university  graduate,  is  only  half  educated,  though 
he  may  surpass  the  latter  as  a  drillmaster.  The  truth  is: 
Even  the  university  graduate  is  but  partly  educated,  measured 
by  an  ideal  of  a  one  hundred  per  cent  standard. 

The  college  graduate,  trained  or  not  trained  in  the  method- 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


7 


ologies  of  a  normal  school,  may  be  a  handy  logarithm  in  a 
mathematical  maze.  But  school  life  is  surprisingly  non- 
mathematical,  in  spite  of  recent  omnipotent  claims  set  forth 
by  Mental  Measurements,  one  of  the  hyperboles  in  our  edu¬ 
cational  system  today.  No  doubt,  Mental  Measurements  has 
a  better  claim  to  a  place  in  our  curricula  than  such  a  “Mode- 
wissenschaf t ’ 9  as  Gall’s  phrenology.  But,  judging  by  the 
criticism  of  Professor  Barth  in  his  stately  standard  work 
“Erziehung  und  Unterrichtslehre  ”  (6th  edition,  1918,  trans¬ 
lated  into  Italian,  Spanish,  Swedish,  Russian — but,  alas,  not 
into  English),  this  new  study  offers  but  little  that  is  reliable, 
and  is  an  unsafe  instrument  in  the  hands  of  even  the  average 
college  graduate.  To  add  a  little  force  to  this  parenthetical 
statement  it  might  be  well  to  refer  the  reader  to  Roloff’s 
“Lexikon  der  Padagogik,  ”  the  standard  reference  work  on 
Education  in  the  Catholic  school  world,  in  which  the  article 
“Test,”  written  in  1917,  presents  the  same  conclusion. 


EMINENT  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  POSITIVE  SCIENCE 

One  of  the  more  unfortunate  phases  of  the  educational 
world  to-day  is  an  acute  worship  of  theory  and  abstraction. 

I  firmly  believe  that  theoretical  studies  should  be  illumined 
by  the  positive  branches  of  law,  medicine,  or  theology,  and 
that  many  an  eminent  scholar  in  the  field  of  history,  philosophy, 
psychology,  education  would  not  have  attained  his  eminence 
if  he  had  plunged  into  the  sea  of  theories  immediately  after 
college  graduation,  without  having  sailed  it  and  sounded  it 
with  the  aid  of  the  vessels  that  positive  science  had  placed 
at  his  disposal. 

One  of  the  foremost  scholars  of  Exegesis  last  century, 
J.  Chr.  von  Hofmann,  had  in  his  situdent  days  a  desire  to 
specialize  in  history.  His  ultimate  aim  was  a  professorship 
in  the  historical  section  of  the  “faculty  of  philosophy.”  The 
professor  whom  he  consulted,  advised  him  to  study  one  of  the 
positive  branches  of  knowledge,  law,  medicine  or  theology, 
which  mankind,  in  the  face  of  crime,  disease,  and  religious 
superstition,  had  found  to  be  positively  necessary  for  its  social, 
physical  and  religious  welfare.  Mr.  Hofmann  selected  Theology, 


8 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


and  later  schooled  himself  thoroughly  in  the  apparatus  of  a 
historian.  The  result  was  the  most  brilliant  scholar  of  biblical 
knowledge  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

Professor  William  Wundt,  the  greatest  philosopher  of  mod¬ 
ern  times  and  the  founder  of  experimental  psychology,  was 
a  graduate  of  Medicine,  before  he  delved  into  philosophy.  So 
was  our  own  William  James.  Professor  Harald  Hpffding,  the 
Danish  philosopher,  was  a  graduate  of  Theology.  And  so  was 
Denmark's  most  original  philosopher  S0ren  Kirkegaard.  Pro¬ 
fessor  Meumann,  the  founder  of  experimental  pedagogy,  was  a 
graduate  of  Theology.  So  was  Professor  Heinze,  another  Ger¬ 
man  philosopher.  Leopold  Ranke,  the  ablest  historian  of 
last  century,  studied  Theology.  Theodor  Mommsen,  the  great¬ 
est  authority  on  Roman  history,  was  a  graduate  of  Law.  Uni¬ 
versity  presidents  like  Harper  of  Chicago  and  Burton  of  Ann 
Arbor  and  Scott  of  Northwestern  graduated  from  Theology. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  tributes  paid  to  the  science  of 
Theology  in  recent  times  were  those  given  to  the  church  his¬ 
torians  Albert  Hauck  and  Adolf  Harnack.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century,  the  university  of  Berlin  offered  Profes¬ 
sor  Hauck,  of  Leipzig,  the  chair  of  Ranke,  which  would  have 
meant  for  Hauck  a  transfer  from  the  faculty  of  theology  to 
that  of  philosophy. 

Professor  Hauck,  wTell  aw^are  that  no  other  jjrofessor  of 
history  had  done  as  much  for  the  secular  history  of  medieval 
Germany  as  he  had  in  his  standard  church  history  of  five 
volumes,  declined  the  offer.  This  offer  from  a  university  like 
that  of  Berlin  to  a  representative  of  theological  scholarship 
is  a  thing  quite  incomprehensible  to  our  average  American  state 
university  faculty,  which  will  investigate  all  kinds  of  phenom¬ 
ena  save  religious. 

But  this  distinction  was  not  without  a  precedent.  When 
the  Prussian  Academy  of  Science  wanted  its  history  written 
for  the  celebration  of  its  two  hundredth  anniversary,  in  1900, 
its  members  chose  the  eminent  church  historian  Professor 
Harnack  to  write  it.  He  got  a  year’s  leave  of  absence  and 
wrote  a  brilliant  history  of  it  in  three  volumes.  Both  Hauck 
and  Harnack  were  recipients  of  the  Verdun  prize. 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


9 


PART  TIME  TEACHING  BY  JURISTS,  PHYSICIANS, 
THEOLOGIANS 

It  is  surprising  how  large  a  number  of  men  schooled  in  law, 
medicine,  and  especially  in  theology,  are  teachers  in  the  public 
schools  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  and  even  in  Finland.  In 
Finland  a  theologian  is  at  the  head  of  every  normal  school — 
and  Finland  ?s  normal  schools  are  celebrated.  What  a  good 
thing  to  have  a  little  balance  in  the  faculty,  a  little  variety 
in  its  make-up.  And,  incidentally,  under  certain  conditions, 
what  a  saving.  Our  present  shortage  of  teachers  could  partly 
be  overcome  by  employing  graduates  of  a  positive  science  as 
part  time  teachers.  Surely,  there  are  college  trained  lawyers, 
physicians  and  ministers  who  could  do  a  little  teaching  in  our 
schools  without  inconvenience  to  their  practice  and  profession. 
However,  one  of  the  troubles  with  this  is  that  a  college  trained 
physician  or  jurist  does  not  feel  the  need  of  “pin  money, ”  and 
the  ministerial  rank  has  too  few  representatives  that  combine 
a  good  college  education  with  a  good,  scholarly  theological 
training.  But  the  greatest  trouble  is  the  limitation  of  the  school 
administrator,  who,  generally,  quite  ignorant  of  the  specifically 
educational  value  of  the  professions  of  law,  medicine  and  theol¬ 
ogy,  would  feel  his  own  profession  slighted,  if  he  were  to 
break  the  bread  of  school  life  with  the  lawyer  or  minister  or 
physician  in  any  other  capacity  than  that  of  sitting  with  him 
as  a  member  of  a  school  board.  I  congratulate  the  State  Nor¬ 
mal  School  at  ValL?y  City  on  having  on  its  faculty  a  member 
of  the  clergy  who  teaches  French  at  the  normal  school,  yet 
takes  care  of  his  parish  in  the  city. 

The  salvation  of  the  graded  and  especially  the  high  school 
in  our  country  depends  on  getting  a  greater  variety  of  training 
represented  on  its  faculty,  and  not  on  retaining  a  traditional 
uniformity,  certainly  not  a  uniformity  of  mediocrity.  Rules, 
regulations,  'good  traditions  are  necessary  in  school  work.  That 
is  a  truism.  But  two  factors,  the  over-exacting  time-element, 
applied  to  the  pupils,  and  the  mechanical  canons  for  selecting 
teachers,  have  sometimes  wrought  havoc  in  public  school  edu¬ 
cation.  We  are  at  present  concerned  with  the  training  and 
selection  of  teachers,  which,  however,  also  may  affect  the  time 


10 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


element.  The  poor  teacher  is  the  very  teacher  who  makes  the 
pupil  “do  time.” 

LARGER  OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  NORMAL  SCHOOLS 

Notwithstanding,  our  normal  schools  cannot  cease  to  func¬ 
tion  except  at  a  great  loss  to  public  instruction.  However, 
they  must  be  given  larger  opportunities  in  order  to  live,  and 
not  merely  to  exist.  The  high  school  is  gradually  supplanting 
the  high  school  courses  of  the  older  normal  school;  and  if  the 
high  schools  will  go  on  developing  junior  colleges,  a  great  many 
normals  will  have  to  perish  unless  they  become  teachers  col¬ 
leges,  giving  a  four  years7  course  leading  to  a  degree.  This 
naturally  need  not,  and  for  years  to  come,  should  not,  affect 
the  two-year  course  beyond  high  school  graduation.  The  reten¬ 
tion  of  one  or  two-year  courses  is  a  matter  of  expediency;  and 
though  one  normal  school  president  writes  that  the  one  or 
two-year  course  does  not  lead  definitely  anywhere  unless  it  is 
to  a  “blind  alley,77  we  are  not  ready  in  North  Dakota  to  drop 
the  two-year  course,  perhaps  not  even  any  of  the  other  courses, 
though  many  of  us  feel  we  should  add  two  years  of  work  to 
what  we  have. 

The  contention  of  the  normal  schools  to-day  is  that  if  normal 
school  training  is  needful  for  teachers  in  the  grades,  why  not 
for  teachers  in  the  high  schools;  or,  to  state  it  very  modestly, 
why  should  not  the  normal  school  be  put  at  least  on  a  par 
with  the  independent  college,  so  that  it  can  give  a  four  years7 
college  course,  with  emphasis  on  teacher  training.  This  would 
not  signify  normal  school  monopoly,  but  plain  parity.  There 
are  many  independent  colleges  which  are  granting  acceptable 
B.  A.  degrees,  and  yet  do  not  measure  up  to  older  normal 
schools  in  Minnesota  or  North  Dakota,  either  in  personnel  or 
equipment. 

DATA  ON  FOUR-YEAR  COURSES  AND  GRANTING 
OF  DEGREES 

In  order  to  find  out  what  the  presidents  of  our  state  normal 
schools  are  thinking  about  the  future  of  our  normal  school 
system,  I  wrote  a  letter  to  155  normal  school  presidents,  asking 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


11 


for  a  personal  statement  of  theirs  in  regard  to  giving  a  four- 
year  college  course,  with  emphasis,  as  heretofore,  on  teacher 
training.  Since  writing,  four  weeks  ago,  I  have  been  receiving 
replies  to  these  letters  every  day.  I  have  thus  far  received 
letters  from  eighty  presidents,  more  than  one  hundred  new 
catalogues,  many  pamphlets,  also  mimeographed  papers  recently 
presented  by  normal  school  committees  advocating  the  four- 
year  college  course  in  the  normal,  or  the  teachers  training 
college. 

On  basis  of  this  material,  I  find  that  62  of  our  normals  are 
already  giving  four-year  collegiate  courses  and  B.  A.  or  B.  S. 
degrees.  More  than  55  are  working  hard  to  get  the  consent 
of  their  legislature  to  become  teachers  training  colleges.  To 
this  group  belong  8  normals  in  California,  9  in  Massachusetts, 
5  in  Minnesota,  11  in  New  York,  13  in  Pennsylvania,  9  in  Wis¬ 
consin.  Eight  others  are  hoping  for  the  four-year  course.  This 
means  that  about  75  per  cent  of  the  state  normal  schools  in 
our  country  likely  will  be  teachers  training  colleges  before 
our  next  national  election. 

The  replies  that  I  have  received  from  the  various  normal 
school  heads  are  uniformly  affirmative.  Three  presidents  as¬ 
sume  a  neutral  attitude,  and  only  seven  are  averse  to  making 
the  normal  a  teachers  college.  Six  of  the  seven  are  in  the 

South. 

Most  of  the  affirmative  replies  are  emphatic  in  asserting 
the  need  of  a  four-year  course  above  high  school  graduation. 
The  writers  plainly  show  that  the  stand  they  take  is  based  on 
experience  and  conviction,  and  not  on  any  presidential  vanity 
of  heading  a  college.  The  letters  answer  a  question  that  has 
been  burning  for  a  long  time  in  the  souls  of  the  writers. 

I  am  supplementing  this  paper  by  publishing  extracts  from 
them  (pp.  24  seq.).  Suffice  it,  at  this  juncture,  to  call  attention 
to  only  a  few. 

THE  FORWARD  NORMAL  SCHOOL  MOVEMENT 
IN  CALIFORNIA 

President  Hardy,  of  the  State  Normal  School  at  San  Diego, 
sent  me  a  letter  and  a  copy  of  a  report  prepared  to  cover  the 


12 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


normal'  school  situation  in  California.  In  this  letter  he  says 
that  the  California  State  Board  of  Education  and  all  of  the 
educational  organizations  of  the  state  have  endorsed  a  program 
of  legislation  which  will  be  presented  to  the  state  legislature 
in  January,  1921.  The  program  asks  that  all  the  normals  in 
California  be  designated  teachers  colleges;  that  the  legislature 
be  empowered  to  hear  the  application  of  any  normal  school 
in  the  'state  for  a  degree-granting  status,  and  to  authorize  that 
status,  should  the  standards  of  equipment  and  personnel  of  the 
normal  school  in  question  warrant  it. 

The  report  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  normal  school  offers 
too  little  opportunity  for  development,  and  too  much  occupa¬ 
tional  drill  and  grind;  that  its  curricula,  are  overcrowded;  that 
it  stands  up  for  continued  pupilage  in  school  and  leaves  too 
little  margin  for  students’  activities;  that  culture  is  being 
crowded  out  in  favor  of  highly  specialized  dress-sections  of 
public  school  technique  “  until  we  have  the  absurd  spectacle 
of  a  solemn-faced  program  of  making  out  (3f  an  inexperienced 
young  woman,  fresh  from  the  factory-like  processes  of  the 
modern  large  high  school,  a  specialist  in  drawing,  in  music,  in 
manual  training,  in  physical  education,  in  agriculture,  in  rural 
school  teaching,  in  city  school  teaching,  in  tests  and  measure¬ 
ments,  etc.,  etc. — all  in  the  period  of  seventy-two  to  seventy- 
eight  weeks.”  The  report  properly  avers  that  the  normal 
school  would  be  making  a  sad  mistake,  if  it  should  attempt 
to  become  a  college  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  It  must 
remain  professional,  a  “trade  school,”  but  should  be  one  with 
a  cultural  or  collegiate  basis.  It  should  give  a  four-year 
course.  The  State  should  prescribe  the  minimum  essentials  of 
a  sound  teacher-training  course  in  the  subject  of  pedagogy  and 
sociology,  while  the  school  should  formulate  the  rest  of  the 
program.  The  School  of  Education  in  the  University  of  Cali¬ 
fornia  is  assigned  the  task  of  taking  up  the  advanced  work  in 
education  and  leaving  the  collegiate  phase  of  teacher-training 
to  the  normal  schools. 

THE  MASSACHUSETTS  PLAN 

The  state  of  Massachusetts,  likewise,  which  has  been  a 
pioneer  in  so  much  that  pertains  to  education,  is  working  for 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


13 


the  teachers  college.  Principal  Wm.  B.  Aspinwall,  of  Worcester, 
who  the  past  winter  was  appointed  chairman  of  a  committee 
of  the  principals  of  the  normal  schools  of  his  state  to  investi¬ 
gate  the  normal  school  situation,  wrote  me  that  he  is  heartily 
in  favor  of  the  four-year  course.  He  sent  me  a  copy  of  a 
report,  which  had  been  indorsed  by  the  School  Superintendents 
of  Massachusetts  and  by  the  Schoolmasters  Club. 

This  report  advances  twelve  very  good  reasons  for  the 
four-year  course.  I  shall  give  two  of  them: 

‘  ‘  The  present  two-year  normal  school  course  is  entirely 
inadequate  to  prepare  students  properly  in  both  scholarship 
and  technique  for  the  comprehensive  demands  upon  the  grade 
teachers  of  to-day.  Forty  years  ago  a  two-year  course  of  train¬ 
ing  was  sufficient;  for,  then  (a)  we  had  a  better  quality  of 
students;  (b)  they  were  required  to  know  fewer  subjects;  the 
standard  of  scholarship  was  not  as  high  as  now.  But  it  is  not 
sufficient  for  this  training  to-day,  because  the  opposite  condi¬ 
tions  confront  the  normal  schools,  viz.,  (a)  the  quality  of  stu¬ 
dents  has  greatly  deteriorated;  (b)  a  much  larger  number  of 
subjects  is  required;  (c)  far  more  scholarship  is  demanded. 
This  is  true  of  medicine,  law,  engineering  and  other  occupations. 
It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  it  should  be  true  also  of 

teaching . As  an  indication  of  some  of  the  work  that  has 

been  added  in  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years  to  the  program 
of  the  grade  teacher,  one  might  mention  agriculture,  nature- 
study,  citizenship,  Americanization,  English  to  foreigners, 
manual  training,  art,  music,  hygiene,  thrift,  work  with  sub¬ 
normal  pupils,  etc. 

“The  normal  school  does  not  have  the  same  dignity  and 
standing  that  the  college  enjoys.  Consequently  the  high  schools 
urge  their  students  to  choose  college  rather  than  normal 
school.  If  the  normal  school  compared  favorably  with  the 
college  in  length  of  course,  and  in  conferring  a  degree,  it  is 
clear  that  the  attitude  of  the  high  school  teachers  would  change 
more  in  favor  of  the  normal  school,  and  many  students  would 
seek  the  four  years  of  education  that  would  be  offered  by  the 
normal  school  who  are  either  prepared  to  go  to  college  or  in 
many  instances  are  deprived  of  either  opportunity. 1 1 

The  report  recommends  that  the  two-year  course  be  abolished 
from  normal  schools  in  Massachusetts  after  the  year  1920-1921; 


14 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


that  all  students  entering  the1  normal  schools  September,  1921, 
be  required  to  take  a  three-year  course;  that  (to  test  the 
efficacy  of  the  proposition)  in  1924  one  or  more  normal  schools 
be  selected  to  give  a  four-year  course  and  the  degree  B.  S.  in 
Education;  that  students  who  have  graduated  from  a  three-year 
course  in  any  of  the  Massachusetts  normal  schools  be  privileged 
to  take  the  fourth  year  in  a  school  giving  a  four-year  course, 
receiving  full  credit  for  their  three-year  work  already  com¬ 
pleted  and  being  entitled  to  earn  the  college  degree  by  com¬ 
pleting  the  work  of  the  fourth  year  in  that  institution. 

As  a  comment  upon  this  it  may  be  said  that  the  New  Eng¬ 
land  states*  are  so  well  supplied  with  colleges  that  the  change 
of  all  the  normal  schools  of  Massachusetts  into  teachers  col¬ 
leges  at  once  would  seem  too  abrupt.  Hence  the  gradual  change 
by  making  one  or  two  schools  teachers  colleges,  and  by  asking 
for  three-year  courses  in  the  others.  Conditions  are  different 
in  the  West.  Here  the  need  of  the  four-year  course  in  normals 
is  felt  much  more.  Here,  too,  the  three-year  course,  as  a 
president  of  a  Wisconsin  normal  writes,  would  not  be  much 
more  than  a  course  on  paper  as:  long  as  the  two-year  course 
should  be  retained.  The  situation  in  our  territory,  it  would 
seem,  requires  a  four-year  course,  but  also  the  retention  of 
the  two-year  course,  and,  in  some  normals,  even  the  retention 
of  some  of  the  so-called  high  school  work. 


*  Since  the  recent  meeting  of  the  N.  D.  E.  A.  at  Grand  Forks,  where 
this  paper  was  read,  an  editorial  has  appeared  in  the  “Journal  of  Edu¬ 
cation”  entitled  “Brave  Little  Rhody.”  It  congratulates  the  state 
normal  school  of  Rhode  Island  on  having  the  courage  to  expand  to  a 
college  of  education  and  give  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Education.  It 
says,  ‘  ‘This  is  the  most  heroic  act  we  have  ever  known  educationally. 
It  would  signify  nothing  in  the  West,  but  in  New  England  it  is  nothing 

short  of  revolutionary . There  are  twenty-five  other  state  normal 

schools  in  New  England  that  are  wondering,  more  or  less  timidly,  whether 
the  strangle  hold  will  be  loosened  in  their  case.  Be  that  as  it  may. 
Rhode  Island  has  done  as  heroic  an  act  as  we  have  known  in  these 
six  states,  and  for  this  she  deserves  a  medal  of  high  honor.” 

The  Journal  explains:  “The  graduates  of  the  College  of  Education 
receive  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Education.  Those  who  stay  in  the 
College  of  Education  but  two  years  receive  a  certificate  which  is  equiva¬ 
lent  to  thet  diploma  of  the  past  and  they  can  return  and  complete  the 
other  two  years  and  receive  their  degree  by  taking  extension  courses 
which  are  numerous  and  valuable  for  teachers  in  service.  On  Tuesday 
and  Thursday  from  4:  30  p.  m.  onward  and  on  Saturday  all  the  fore¬ 
noon  are  various  courses  all  of  which  will  count  on  a  certificate  or  on 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Education.” 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


15 


A  WORD  FROM  MICHIGAN 

Very  excellent  arguments  for  the  teachers  college  are  given 
in  a  recent  letter  from  President  Charles  McKenny  of  the 
Michigan  State  Normal  College,  Ypsilanti,  Michigan.  He 
writes : 

“I  believe  the  normal  schools  should  just  as  rapidly  as 
possible  extend  their  courses  to  four  years  and  grant  degrees. 
Some  of  my  arguments  are  the  following: 

“1.  To  get  a  better  type  of  faculty  members.  The  upper 
grades  of  college  work  stimulate  teachers  and  relieve  them  of 
the  monotony  of  elementary  teaching. 

11 2.  It  keeps  on  the  campus  mature  students  who  help 
leaven  the  student  body.  They  are  a  stabilizing  and  stimulating 
element  in  college  life. 

“3.  Future  superintendents  need  to  live  in  the  atmosphere 
of  elementary  education.  This  the  normal  school  furnishes. 

“4.  A  very  large  number  of  students  who  want  to  do  high 
school  work  are  unable  to  pay  for  a  university  education.  Then 
normal  schools  offer  college  training  at  minimum  expense. 

“5.  It  is  not  a  good  thing  for  the  universities  to  have  the 
full  sweep  of  college  education.  They  should  not  train  all  of 
our  high  school  teachers.  Competition  is  the  life  of  business. 
Any  institution  which  has  the  monopoly  of  any  particular  field 
of  work  grows  heavy.  The  university  is  no  exception. 

‘ 1  While  of  course  the  great  bulk  of  our  work  is  confined  to 
the  freshman  and  sophomore  years,  it  does  us  good  to  have 
fifty  to  one  hundred  advanced  students.  The  time  is  coming 
when  we  will  graduate  fifty  to  one  hundred  with  the  bachelor’s 
degree.  It  is  worth  working  for.” 

f 

DATA  FROM  OTHER  STATES 

The  normal  school  people  of  Minnesota,  wishing  to  follow 
Michigan,  endeavored  some  years  ago  to  get  authority  from 
the  legislature  to  grant  a  college  degree.  But  they  were  un¬ 
successful,  more  or  less  because  of  the  opposition  of  the  state 
university  and  the  denominational  colleges  of  the  state.  They 
are  repeating  the  endeavor  this  year  and  will  probably  be 
successful. 


16 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


Kansas  has  excellent  normal  schools.  They  have  a  large  at¬ 
tendance,  give  the  degree,  and  demonstrate  how  necessary  the 
four-year  course  is.  Letters  from  Presidents  Butcher  and 
Brandenburg  testify  to  this. 

Missouri  has  converted  all  of  its  normal  schools  into  teachers 
colleges. 

Pennsylvania  expects  to  have  the  four-year  course  in  its 
normal  schools  as  soon  as  the  legislature  permits  this  step. 
The  heads  of  the  normal  schools  in  this  state  seem  to  be  of  one 
accord  in  favoring  the  four-year  course.  But  Pennsylvania, 
like  Massachusetts  having  many  colleges,  may  make  the  change 
gradually,  adding  a  third  year  before  the  full  four-year  course 
is  inaugurated.  This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  two-year 
course  will  be  dropped.  The  new  superintendent  of  public  in¬ 
struction  and  the  Governor  are  strongly  in  favor  of  this  new 
forward  movement. 

The  Wisconsin  normal  schools,  less  the  children  of  tradition 
than  those  in  the  East,  are  making,  through  their  presidents, 
a  strong  effort  to  secure  four-year  courses  and  the  granting 
of  a  degree,  at  an  early  date. 

The  state  of  New  York  is  following  the  plan  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts. 

NORMAL  SCHOOLS  SHOULD  BECOME  TEACHERS 
COLLEGES 

A  perusal  ,of  the  catalogues  of  our  more  than  160  state 
normal  schools  and  of  the  letters  I  have  received,  in  the  light 
of  educational  demand  and  supply,  quantitatively  and  quali¬ 
tatively,  leads  to  conclusions  like  the  following: 

Our  state  normal  schools  should,  wherever  it  is  possible  and 
practicable,  cease  to  vie  with  high  schools.  They  should  not 
solicit  student  material  from  the  eighth  grade  or  encourage 
high  school  students  to  make  a  break  in  their  high  school  work 
in  order  to  take  up  studies  at  the  normal  school,  unless  the 
remoteness  of  the  nearest  high  school  or  some  undesirable  con¬ 
dition  in  the  home  school  justifies  such  a  change. 

Our  state  normal  schools  should,  as  soon  as  conditions  per¬ 
mit,  give  a  four-year  course  and  a  degree,  without  doing  away 
with  the  two-year  course,  or  even  with  high  school  work  where 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


17 


the  retention  of  this  is  absolutely  necessary,  for  some  years. 
Such  an  arrangement  would  not  create  disharmony.  There  are 
many  schools  in  the  United  States  that  offer  a  four-year  high 
school  course,  a  four-year  college  course,  and  a  three-year  theo¬ 
logical  course — all  under  the  same  roof.  Anyone  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  working  of  such  a  school  would  find  no 
difficulty  in  coordinating  a  four-year  course  of  collegiate  stamp 
with  the  other  courses  already  given  in  our  normal  schools. 
Of  course,  the  normal  school  would  not  and  should  not  become 
an  “allround”  college.  Which  courses  it  should  give  would 
be  determined  by  the  composition  of  the  faculty.  One  normal 
school  may  be  strong  in  natural  sciences.  It  would  seem  that 
the  three  courses  offered  in  the  Norwegian  gymnasium  could 
be  profitably  followed:  the  natural-scientific  course,  the  lan¬ 
guage-history  course,  the  classic  course,  with  adaptations  to 
preserve  the  teacher  training  aim.  And  yet,  it  would  do  no 
harm,  on  the  contrary  prove  beneficial,  to  have  some  students 
preparing  for  law,  medicine,  etc.,  without  obligation  on  their 
part  to  study  methodologies  and  reviews. 


A  WEAKNESS  IN  HIGHEB  EDUCATION 

The  trouble  with  many  of  our  colleges  to-day  is  this:  They 
have  aspired  to  be  universities,  they  have  copied  the  English 
system,  making  the  college  the  zenith  institution  of  education. 
And  yet,  the  copying  has  been  so  imperfect  that  the  average 
American  B.  A.  lacks  three  years  of  being  equal  to  an  Oxford 
B.  A.  For  some  inexplicable  reason  our  colleges  have  built 
a  German  postgraduate  department  on  top  of  the  collegiate, 
and  called  the  entire  confusion  a  “university.”  It  is  amusing 
to  see  the  freshly  graduated  product  of  the  college  department 
of  a  “university”  parade  as  a  “university  graduate,”  while 
he,  at  most,  is  not  more  than  the  equal  of  a  German  “primaner.  ” 
As  secretary  of  the  American  Students’  Association  at  Leipzig, 
1902-1903,  I  heard  discussed  at  one  meeting  the  German  gym¬ 
nasium  as  compared  with  the  American  college.  More  than 
sixty  college  graduates  from!  different  American  colleges  and 
universities  were  present.  The  German  gymnasium  was  given 
the  majority  vote  of  being  better  than  our  college,  a  surprise 


18 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


to  those  who  had  read  in  books  that  the  German  gymnasium, 
and,  with  that,  the  Norwegian,  the  Swedish,  the  Danish,  and 
the  Finnish  are  only  about  as  goood  as  our  high  school.  The 
salvation  of  the  American  college  will  depend  on  its  becoming 
a  college  proper,  and  of  the  American  university  on  being 
turned  into  a  university  proper,  as  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

Among  the  colleges  proper,  normal  schools  should  hold  an 
important  place.  They  should  be  teachers  colleges,  at  least  be 
accorded  the  recognition  given  to  independent,  denominational 
colleges. 

Our  schools  of  education  in  the  universities  should  do  strictly 
postgraduate  work  in  Education,  where  they  are  capable  of 
doing  it. 

The  conversion  of  the  normal  school  into  a  teachers  college 
would  naturally  be  combated  by  schools  of  education,  which 
might  go  so  far  as  to  preach  the  dictum  of  the  Iowa  Survey 
Commission,  which  advised  that  normal  schools  give  up  all 
non-professional  courses,  abolish  all  but  vocational  courses. 
However,  this  advice  is  sponsored  by  a  host  of  independent 
colleges,  in  which  Iowa  abounds,  rather  than  by  a  strong 
university. 

Better  advice  is  given  by  Professor  Ernest  C.  Moore,  form¬ 
erly  president  of  the  state  normal  school  at  Los  Angeles,  now 
director  of  the  southern  branch  of  the  University  of  California: 
“Our  own  conviction  is  that  the  normal  school  is  a  disappear¬ 
ing  member  of  the  educational  organization, ..  .that  the  normal 
schools  must  be  converted  into  teachers  colleges  or  become  parts 
of  the  universities  already  in  existence. 9 9 

The  latter  recommendation  is  also  that  of  the  Carnegie  Sur¬ 
vey  of  the  normal  schools  of  Missoufi.  This  survey  contends 
that  the  normal  schools  should  remain  where  they  are,  but 
become  integral  departments  of  the  state  university  system. 


COLLEGE  SUBJECTS  IN  NORMAL  SCHOOLS 

Some  normal  schools  have  tried  the  experiment  of  elim¬ 
inating  college  subjects.  It  has  had  the  effect  of  an  amputation 
of  sound  limbs.  Very  appropriately  says  the  book  “Self  Sur¬ 
veys  by  Teachers  Training  Schools, 99  by  Allen  and  Pearse:  “It 


MAYYILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA  i9 


has  not  been  proved  that  eliminating  college  courses — i.  e.  col¬ 
lege  students — from  normal  schools  will  do  as  much  to  raise 
the  standard  of  instruction  in  the  normal  and  other  public 
schools  as  will  the  retention  of  college  courses  and  of  students 
planning  to  take  a  four-year  course.”  It  wisely  continues: 
“No  dangers  have  ever  yet  been  pointed  out  in  the  college 
courses  as  found  in  normal  schools  which  are  not  attributable 
to  administrative  breakdown  and  which  cannot  be  corrected 
by  administrative  steps.  The  president  is  there;  the  buildings 
are  there;  there  are  regents  and  a  state  department  of  instruc¬ 
tion;  there  is  no  justification  for  giving  up  the  advantages 
that  would  flow  from  college  work  available  in  several  different 
parts  of  the  state  until  after  thorough  effort  has  been  made 
to  separate  abuse  from  use,  and  to  correct  abuse.  ’  ’ 

This  trend  of  thought  receives  support  in  the  Carnegie  Sur¬ 
vey  of  normal  schools  in  Missouri.  Says  this  most  fascinating 
survey:  “Longer  to  maintain  the  distinction  between  the  uni¬ 
versity  and  the  normal  school  as  representing  a  distinguishable 
difference  in  grade  or  quality  of  instruction  is,  in  the  cases  of 
best  normal  schools  in  this  country,  purely  factitious;  and 
its  eradication  would  be  the  best  possible  reason  for  requiring 
of  inferior  schools  a  genuine  enforcement  of  standards  to  which 
most  of  them  now  profess  their  adherence.  In  the  numerous 
American  normal  schools  now  doing  thoroughly  standard  work 
the  instructors  have  as  broad  and  as  intensive  training  as 
those  giving  instruction  to  students  of  equal  advancement  in 
good  colleges  and  universities,  and  are  quite  frequently  superior 

in  this  respect . The  teaching  of  the  first  class  normal  schools 

is  probably  in  advance  of  that  to  be  found  in  the  ordinary 
arts  colleges  or  even  in  the  better  medical  and  law  schools. 1 1 


EXPENSES 

Will  the  conversion  of  the  normal  school  into  a  teachers 
college  increase  the  expenses?  It  is  safe  to  say  that  in  most 
normal  schools  there  would  not  be  any  need  of  additional  teach¬ 
ers  to  do  the  extra  work  required  for  the  extended  course, 
though  in  some  of  the  schools  the  present  number  of  teachers 
is  not  large  enough  to  carry  even  the  courses  already  allotted 


20 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


them.  This  holds  true  especially  of  schools  that  are  offering 
five  years  of  work,  three  of  which  cover  a  high  school  course. 
But  if  they  get  the  number  and  quality  of  teachers  they  are 
entitled  to,  even  without  a  thought  of  extended  curriculum, 
there  would  not  be  any  additional  expense  to  speak  of,  if  at 
all,  to  make  the  normal  school  a  teachers  college.  The  slow 
elimination  of  ninth  and  tenth  or  eleventh  grade  work  would 
mean  a  correspondingly  gradual  increase  in  the  teaching  forces 
in  the  college  work,  though  this  factor  would  at  the  outset  be 
rather  negligible  in  the  budget  of  the  school.  However,  just 
as  there  are  those  who  prefer  to  teach  in  a  normal  school  at 
much  smaller  salary  than  in  a  high  school,  so  there  are  those 
who  prefer  to  go  to  a  teachers  college  at  a  smaller  salary  than 
to  remain  in  the  normal  school,  which  is  doomed  to  move  only 
as  fast  as  its  straitjacket  will  permit.  Many  an  instructor  of 
ability  would  be  glad  to  teach  in  a  teachers  college,  on  account 
of  better  opportunities  for  study  and  research,  on  account  of 
social  or  professional  prestige,  and  on  account  of  a  larger 
sphere  of  influence. 

FUTURE  RIVALS 

The  fact  that  it  is  seriously  proposed  by  some  that  every 
county  establishes  a  junior  college,  shows  what  normal  schools 
may  expect  in  the  future,  if  they  do  not  sense  their  oppor¬ 
tunities  and  responsibilities.  They  will  be  reduced  to  state 
high  schools,  and,  probably,  lacking  the  support  of  such  a  com¬ 
munity  spirit,  as  a  high  school  has  and  deservingly  has,  will 
finally  perish. 


MONOPOLY  IMPOSSIBLE 

Hence:  the  normal  school  must  become  a  teachers  college. 
But  it  must  not  and  can  not  monopolize  the  training  of  teach¬ 
ers;  for,  there  is,  and  always  will  be,  something  incommen¬ 
surable  in  teacher  training  that  even  a  college  laying  no  claim 
to  assets  in  professional  subjects  may  possess  and  with  which 
it  may  possibly  excel.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  the 
teachers  college  cannot  be  a  monopoly  for  any  length  of  time. 
The  recognition  given  the  Departments  of  Education  at  the 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


21 


University  of  Chicago  or  at  Columbia  University,  judging  by 
the  extensive  pilgrimages  they  enjoy,  of  teachers  young  and 
of  teachers  old,  who  flock  to  them  to  get  the  first  or  ultimate 
touch  of  scientific  pedagogy,  is  a  symptom  of  educational 
juvenility  or  senility.  One  need  not  be  a  worshipper  of  the 
educational  standards  of  the  old  world;  but  if  he  is  not  a 
chauvinist,  he  will  ask,  Why  are  universities  of  the  old  world 
so  chary  in  giving  recognition  to  “  wissenschaf  tliche  Padago- 
gik”?  In  the  universities  of  Germany  and  Austria  there  were 
in  1917  only  five  “professors  ordinarii”  in  Education:  Rein  in 
Jena;  Foerster  and  Gottler  in  Munich,  the  former  in  the  philo¬ 
sophic  faculty,  the  latter  in  the  theological;  Toischer  in 
Prague;  and  Ziehen  in  Frankfurt  a.  M.  Even  the  large  uni¬ 
versity  of  Berlin  had  only  an  associate  professorship  in  edu¬ 
cation.  Sometime  the  philosopher  Fr.  Paulson  lectured  in 
pedagogy.  Halle  has  an  honorary  professor  in  this  field, 
Tuebingen  has  a  1 1  privat  docent.  ’  ’  A  regular  professor  in 
philosophy  teaches,  as  a  “side  line,”  pedagogy  in  the  universi¬ 
ties  of  Bonn,  Giessen,  Halle,  Leipzig,  Marburg,  Braunsberg, 
Freiburg  i  B.,  Vienna,  Wurzburg,  Strassburg.  A  regular  pro¬ 
fessor  of  classical  philology  gives  lectures  on  pedagogy  in  Er¬ 
langen,  Heidelberg,  Munich,  Munster.  The  annual  publication 
“Minerva”  says  nothing  about  any  lectures  on  pedagogy  or 
education  for  1913-14  in  the  universities  of  Breslau,  Gottingen, 
Greifswald,  Kiel,  Konigsberg,  Rostock,  though  their  catalogues 
announced  lectures  on  a  number  of  educational  themes  by  pro¬ 
fessors  of  philosophy  and  theology.  Of  course,  a  number  of 
valuable  courses  on  pedagogic  themes  are  also  given  in  the 
departments  of  medicine,  law,  and  economics.  This  must  not 
be  underestimated.  The  fact  remains,  however,  that  the  uni¬ 
versities  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  on  the  whole,  have  resisted 
the  establishing  of  professorships  of  pedagogy,  which  they  do 
not  regard  as  a  “  vollgueltige  Wissenschaf  t.  ”  This  attitude  has' 
led  to  the  foundation  of  independent  schools  of  education,  like 
the  “  Zentralinstitut  fur  Erziehung  und  Unterricht”  in  Berlin, 
founded  in  1915,  or  like  the  department  of  the  university  forma¬ 
tion  “  Allgemeines  Vorlesungswesen  ”  at  H  amburg,  headed  by 
Meumann,  and  later  by  Stern. 

If  the  continental  universities  withhold  the  acknowledgment 
of  pedagogy  as  a  “  vollgueltige  Wissenschaft,  ”  the  tendency  in 


22 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


various  circles  in  America  is  to  regard  it  as  the  only  “voll- 
gueltige  Wissenschaft.  ’  ’  This  is  unfortunate,  because  of  the 
reaction  that  is  bound  to  follow. 

PARITY  ASKED  FOR 

In  stressing  the  value  of  the  teachers  college,  it  is,  there¬ 
fore,  well  to  be  cautious.  We  do  not  expect  too  much  of  it 
either  as  a  college  or  as  a  postgraduate  department.  But  we 
ask,  for  the  college  stage  of  it,  that  it  be  put  on  a  par  with 
the  independent  college;  that  its  graduates  be  not  barred  from 
positions  in  public  schools  open  to  graduates  of  denominational 
colleges.  Our  people  need  the  latter  institutions,  and  they  in 
return  need  the  conlidence  and  good  will  of  the  state.  But 
it  is  not  fair  to  discriminate  by  legislation  in  their  favor,  at 
the  expense  of  the  institutions  which  the  state  calls  its  own. 
Therefore,  the  normal  school  does  not  request  that  it  be  made 
a  primus  inter  pares  among  the  collegiate  schools  of  a  state, 
but  it  pleads  for  parity  on  a  collegiate  basis. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  DEMOCRATIC  SPIRIT 

Before  finishing,  I  wish  finally  to  call  attention  to  two 
things  which  make  the  denominational  colleges  seem  stronger 
than  the  average  state  schools.  It  is  the  attitude  of  the  former 
toward  religion  and  democracy,  friendly  in  both  cases.  It 
cannot  indeed  be  denied  that  many  of  our  state  institutions, 
especially  universities,  do  little  to  suppress  aristocratic  tenden¬ 
cies  and  much  to  suppress  religious  thought  under  the  cloak 
of  neutrality;  though  privately  owned  institutions  like  Harvard, 
Yale,  the  University  of  Chicago  are  not  working  under  any 
restraint.  Now  the  state  normal  schools  in  most  states  profess 
in  theih  catalogues  that  they  foster  Christian  ideals  and  appre¬ 
ciate  Chr'itian  nurture,  a  trait  from  the  days  when  the  majority 
of  normal  schools  were  owned  privately.  From  personal  ex¬ 
perience  I  can  say  that  the  Christian  spirit  in  a  few  normal 
schools  I  know,  is  more  in  evidence  than  in  some  church-owned 
schools.  It  is  indeed  encouraging  that  the  State  Manual  Train¬ 
ing  School  at  Pittsburg,  Kansas,  has  for  the  last  ten  years 
carried  a  Bible  course  of  study,  one  hour  a  week,  and  has  given 
credit  for  it;  and  that  it  in  the  past  three  years  has  given 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


23 


courses  in  Christian  Evidence,  New  Testament,  Old  Testament, 
Social  Teachings  of  Jesus  and  Ethics  of  Jesus.  This  trait  alone 
makes  the  teachers  college  more  desirable  than  a  state  college 
of  the  type  where  information  on  Homer,  Plato,  Moses,  Mo¬ 
hammed  is  required,  but  where  information  about  Jesus  or 
Paul  is  taboo,  as  if  they  never  contributed  anything  to  history. 

As  to  democracy,  the  fact  that  the  normal  school  is  not 
a  school  of  social  prestige,  but  is  the  struggling  teachers 
school — is  significant.  Add  to  this  its  close  contact  with  the 
children  in  the  grades,  its  reserved  attitude  toward  aristocratic 
fraternities,  its  discouragement  of  class  rivalries — and  the 
preservation  of  the  democratic  spirit  is  self-evident. 

President  Frank  H.  H.  Roberts,  of  the  New  Mexico  Normal 
University,  has  well  said,  1 1  The  state  institutions  cannot 
duplicate  the  religious  and  democratic  spirit  as  the  normal 
schools  can.” 

THE  TEACHERS  COLLEGE  A  RESPONSE  TO  THE 
NEEDS  OF  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  AS  WELL  AS 
TO  THE  NEEDS  OF  THE  GRADES 

The  normal  school  attained  to  its  majority,  or  the  teachers 
college,  is  through  its  graduates  morally  entitled  to  create  the 
same  kind  of  spirit  in  the  high  schools  and  should  be  legally 
entitled  to  respond  to  the  demands  of  high  schools  for  normal 
school  graduates  as  teachers.  For,  as  President  E.  L.  Hendricks 
of  the  Central  State  Teachers  College  at  Warrensburg  stated 
in  an  address  before  the  Normal  School  presidents  at  Atlantic 
City,  February,  1918,  the  high  school  is  known  as  the  weakest 
section  of  our  entire  system  of  education.  “Why  is  it  true 
that  if  we  begin  with  the  kindergarten  and  the  graduate  school 
of  the  university  our  converging  lines  of  least  effectiveness 
will  meet  in  the  high  school? i9  His  answer  is:  the  lack  of 
professional  training. 

This  training  can  be  had  in  the  teachers  college,  not  ex¬ 
clusively,  but  to  such  a  degree,  both  socially  and  educationally, 
that  there  should  be  no  hesitancy  Ln  making  the  normal  schools 
teachers  colleges,  thus  giving  them  their  proper,  and  by  in¬ 
heritance  rightful,  place  in  our  educational  system,  so  they  may 
serve  the  high  schools  as  they  have  served  and  shall  serve  the 
grades. 


24 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


Extracts  from  Letters  of  Normal  School 
Presidents  Favoring  a  Four  Year  Course 
above  High  School  Graduation 
in  Normal  Schools 

(The  letters  were  received  by  Dr.  Evjen  as  replies  to  an  inquiry 
made  by  him  October  14,  1920.) 


-0- 


ALABAMA,  JACKSONVILLE 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  C.  W.  Daugette  writes:  “I  am  convinced  that  the  normal 
school  should  go  four  years  beyond  the  high  school  work  and  give 
degrees.  It  requires  this  to  make  young  people  have  the  respect  for 
the  profession  of  teaching  that  is  employed  by  medicine,  law,  dentistry, 
and  other  professions.  They  must  have  the  respect  for  the  profession, 
before  they  will  be  willing  to  spend  money  to  prepare  themselves  to 
enter  it.” 


CALIFORNIA,  SAN  JOSE 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  W.  W.  Kemp:  ‘‘I  find  myself  an  advocate  of  collegiate 
status  for  normal  schools,  with  the  power  to  confer  an  appropriate 
baccalaureate  degree.  Normal  school  presidents  of  California  are  pre¬ 
paring  legislation  to  make  possiblei  collegiate  status  for  all  their  insti¬ 
tutions.  though  with  the  proviso  that  the  State  Board  of  Education 
shall  set  up  minimum  standards  which  must  be  met  by  any  institution, 
before  it  can  acquire  collegiate  status.  If  such  legislation  is  passed, 
I  am  sure  the  Fresno  school  and  ours  may  early  seek  to  become  college 
normals.’  ’ 


COLORADO,  GREELY 
STATE  TEACHERS  COLLEGE 

President  J.  G.  Crabbe:  “This  institution  has  been  on  the  four 
and  five-year  course  basis  for  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  and  gives  the 
A.  B.  and  A.  M.  Every  worth-while  normal  school  in  the  country  ought 
to  look  forward  to  the  four-year  course  at  the  earliest  practicable  date.” 


CONNECTICUT,  DANBURY 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

Principal  J.  R.  Perkins:  ‘‘It  is  the  business  of  the  state  to  prepare 
all  teachers  needed  in  the  public  school  system.  In  order  to  prepare 
high  school  teachers  a  four-year  course  is  needed  in  the'  normal  schools. 
I  see  no  reason  why  they  should  not  also  give  a  degree  after  four  years 
of  work.” 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


25 


CONNECTICUT,  WILLIMANTIC 
STATE  NORMAL-TRAINING  SCHOOL 

Principal  George  H.  Shafer:  “I  believe  that  two  years’  work 

beyond  the  high  school  is  not  adequate  for  the  kind  of  training  that 
public  school  teachers  ought  to  have,  so  that  it  is  my  opinion  that  our 
school  curriculum  should  be  lengthened  in  time  to  four  years,  and  an 
appropriate  degree  given,  possibly  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Pedagogy. 

“I  am  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the  four-year  college  course 
which  emphasizes  everything  else  under  the  sun  but  the  training  of 
teachers.  It  is  not  numbers  that  we  want.  Teaching  should  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  profession  in  the  same  way  that  medicine  is  regarded  as 
a  profession,  and  the  science  upon  which  it  is  based  is  so  extensive 
that  four  years  is1  none  too  long,  but  medical  schools  apply  themselves 
to  the  training  of  physicians.  They  do  not  attempt  to  give  a  Liberal 
Arts  course  nor  should  the  normal  school  attempt  to  do  this  thing.” 


IOWA.  CEDAR  FALLS 

IOWA  STATE  TEACHERS  COLLEGE 

President  H.  H.  Seerley:  “The  only  successful  end  for  the  old 

standard  normal  school  is  that  of  the  four-year  standard.  It  is  no  use 
to  fight  against  decisions  made  by  civilization.  The  only  institution 
recognized  in  several  states  is  one  with  college  standards  of  entrance 
length  of  course,  and  ideals.” 


ILLINOIS,  CARBONDALE 

STATE  NORMAL  UNIVERSITY,  SOUTHERN  ILL. 

President  H.  W.  Shryock:  “If  you  will  examine  page  32  [of 

catalogue]  you  will  see  that  we  are  offering  senior  college  work.  We 
had  just  begun  to  develop  this  phase  of  normal  school  training  when 

the  war  struck  us . We  are  planning  to  ask  the  legislature  for  more 

than  $40,000  additional  equipment  for  our  laboratories,  and  for  not 
fewer  than  six  additional  members  of  the  faculty,  in  order  that  we 
may  develop  our  senior  college  work.  If  we  are  to  train  high  school 
teachers  we  must  offer  four  years  of  work  beyond  high  school.” 


ILLINOIS,  CHARLESTON 

EASTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Livingston  C.  Lord:  “I  have  been  opposed  until  recently 
to  the  normal  schools  giving  four  years  beyond  the  high  school,  but 
we  are  doing  this  now,  and  so  are  all  the  normal  schools  in  this 
state,  with  the  emphasis,  of  course,  on  teacher  training. 


ILLINOIS,  MACOMB 

WESTERN  ILLINOIS  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  W.  P.  Morgan:  ‘‘I  feel  quite  sure  it  is  the  business  of 
the  normal  schools  in  Illinois,  at  least,  and  I  think  elsewhere,  to  pre¬ 
pare  teachers  for  the  common  schools,  of  whatever  type  they  may  be. 
This  will  include  both  elementary  and  high  schools,  of  course.  I  am 
not  at  aR  sure  in  my  own  mind  that  teachers  who  teach  in  high  schools 
should  Have  a  longer  course  of  training  than  those  who  teach  in  the 
grades.  A  four-year  course  is  preferable  for  either.  We  have  three 
curriculums  leading  to  the  bachelor’s  degree.” 


26 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


ILLINOIS,  NORMAL 

ILLINOIS  STATE  NORMAL  UNIVERSITY 

President  David  Felmley:  “Thirteen  years  ago  we  obtained  from 
the  state  legislature  authority  to  grant  degrees  in  Education.  Since 
that  date  we  have  granted  about  one  hundred  twenty  degrees  to  students 
who  have  completed  a  full  four-year  course  beyond  the  high  school.  We 
call  the  curriculum  that  they  complete  the  Teachers’  College  Curriculum. 
.  .  .It  is  my  opinion  that  the  normal  schools  should  he  regarded  every¬ 
where  as  the  state’s  chief  agencies  for  the  training  of  teachers;  that 
they  should  determine  the  standards  and  ideals  of  teaching;  and  that 
they  should  undertake  to  prepare  every  sort  of  teacher  needed  in  the 
public  schools  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  high  school.’’ 


INDIANA,  TERRE  HAUTE 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Wm.  W.  Parsons:  “On  the  question  of  a  four-year 

normal  course,  I  stand  unequivocally  for  such  a  course  of  study.  I  be¬ 
lieve  that  every  state  normal  in  the  country  should  offer  its  students 
the  opportunity  to  pursue  such  a  course  in  a  strictly  pedagogical  at¬ 
mosphere.” 


KANSAS,  EMPORIA 

KANSAS  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Thos.  W.  Butcher:  “The  four-year  course  was  established 
in  this  school  approximately  fifteen  years  ago.  During  the  years  since 
the  course  was  inaugurated,  it  has  demonstrated  its  necessity  over 
and  over  again,  and  in  very  many  ways.  First  of  all,  there  is  no 
institution,  outside  of  a  normal  school,  anywhere  in  the  country,  which 
prepares  superintendents  especially  for  village  and  small  schools. 
High  school  teachers  can  be  prepared  and  are  prepared  in  the  colleges 
and  universities,  but  the  graduates  of  colleges  and  universities  are, 
almost  without  exception,  young  people  who  have  not  interrupted  their 
school  courses  since  they  began  in  the  first  grade.  In  other  words,  the' 
have  marched  straight  through  the  school  course  and  have  graduated 
young  in  years,  and  younger  still  in  experience.  In  the  normal  schools 
quite  the  contrary  is  true.  Nearly  every  member  of  our  graduating 
classes,  through  the  years,  has  had  teaching  experience.  The  superin 
tendent  of  a  small  school  must  know  the  high  school  and  he  must 
know,  the  primary  and  intermediate  grades.  If  he  cannot  supervise 
his  high  school  teachers,  he  fails.  If  he  cannot  supervise  his  primary 
teachers,  he  fails.  Normal  schools,  offering  training  for  all  grades  of 
teaching  from  the  primary  to  the  high  school  inclusive,  prepare  city 
supernitendents  for  small  systems  in  which  it  is  impossible  to  employ 
a  special  supervisor. 

“I  would  be  willing  to  rest  the  case  of  our  normal  schools  in 

this  state  upon  the  above  statement  of  facts.  However,  there  are 
additional  reasons  for  the  degree  granting  normal  school.  Young  people 
of  vision  do  not  care  to  enter  a  school  that  does  not  go  beyond  two 
years.  They  want  a  real  Alma  Mater.  They  want  to  be  in  a  school 
with  a  complete  course  of  training.  In  a  degree  granting  normal 

school,  you  will  find  just  as  capable  and  as  ambitious  students  as  in 
the  best  colleges  and  universities.  Many  of  these  students  do  not  reach 
the  goal  of  their  ambitions,  and  drop  out  to  become  teachers  in  the 
grade  schools.  Their  training,  whatever  they  have  had,  fits  them  for 
these  positions.  Whereas,  students  who  drop  out  of  the  university 
before  completing  the  course  are  fitted  for  the  most  part  for  no  specific 
work.  Then,  too,  the  atmosphere  of  a  teacher  training  institution  is 

conducive  to  the  development  of  interest  and  pride  in  the  teaching 

profession.  Students  in.  the  Department  of  Education  in  the  University 
do  not  have  generally  the  same  social  rating  given  students  in  law. 
medicine,  engineering,  and  other  departments.” 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


27 


KANSAS,  PITTSBURG 

STATE  MANUAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL 

President  W.  A.  Brandenburg:  “In  regard  to  the  subject  ‘Should 
the  normal  school  do  two  years  or  four  years  work  above  the  four-year 
high  school’  there  is  but  one  sensible  answer.  x 

“The  normal  schools  of  this  country  should  become  real  teachers 
colleges  and  therefore  should  do  fouh  years  of  real  college  work  above 
the  four-year  high  school.  This  course  should  be  so  arranged  that 
teachers  can  be  certified  from  time  to  time  during  the  four  years  while 
they  are  continuing  the  work  of  completing  their  four-year  course.  This 
should  be  done  for  two  reasons:  It  is  a  good  thing  for  one  taking  a 
four-year  course  to  get  some  actual  teaching  while  they  are  taking  this 
course.  Second,  many  of  our  young  people,  end  especially  those  enter¬ 
ing  the  teaching  profession,  have  not  means  whereby  they  can  attend 
school  four  years  successively.  Possibly  a  third  reason,  the  shortage 
of  teachers,  makes  it  necessary  for  people  to  be  released  before  their 
training  is  completed.” 


KENTUCKY,  BOWLING  GREEN 

WESTERN  KENTUCKY  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  H.  H.  Cherry  writes:  “This  institution  gives  a  course 
in  junior  college  work.  We  believe  there  should  be  four  years  above 
high  school  graduation. 

“We  are  very  much  interested  in  the  subject  which  you  are  studying 
and  we  are  writing  to  most  earnestly  request  that  you  let  us  have  a  copy 
of  this  study  if  you  have  copies  of  same.  We  have  just  begun  an 
investigation  along  this  line  and  would  greatly  appreciate  the  survey 
which  you  are  making  together  with  such  conclusions  as  you  may  ar¬ 
rive  at.” 


LOUISIANA,  NATCHITOCHES 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Y.  L.  Roy  writes:  “Ten  years  ago  we  admitted  in  a 
haphazard  fashion  first  and  second  year  high  school  students;  and  in 
the  four  years  of  the  normal  course  covered  not  only  three  or  four 
years  of  high  school  work,  but  two  years  of  normal  school  training — 
at  least  this  is  what  we  attempted  to  do. 

“Two  years  ago  we  finally  reached  the  point  at  which  we  had 
eliminated  all  work  of  secondary  school  grade  from  our  curricula,  since 
which  time  we  have  offered  a  four-year  course  of  strictly  college  grade. 
We  require  graduation  with  sixteen  units  from  Louisiana  approved  high 
schools,  or  the  equivalent,  for  admission. 

“At  the  end  of  the  first  two  years  of  our  course  we  award  the 
normal  diploma,  and  at  the  end  of  the  four-year  course,  we  confer  the 
A.  B.  degree. 

“The  charter  of  this  school  does  not  specifically  authorize  it  to 
issue  degrees,  but  a  legislative  enactment  confers  such  rights  on  all 
institutions  of  learning  which  offer  four  years  of  college  work  following 
high  school  graduation,  provided  each  year  consists  of  180  school  days. 

‘•‘That  this  normal  school  should  gradually  evolve  into  a  normal 
college  was  settled  in  the  office  of  our  state  superintendent  several 
years  ago,  at  which  were  present  our  state  superintendent  and  heads 
of  all  the  state  institutions  of  learning.  The  argument  that  determined 
the  settlement  of  the  question  was  the  following:  State  institutions 
of  learning  must  and  should  continue  to  offer  four-year  curricula ;  and 
since  Louisiana  has  an  extensive,  efficient  and  thoroughly  organized 
system  of  high  schools,  it  is  not  proper  that  the  State  in  its  state 
schools  should  offer  any  work  of  secondary  grade,  thus  not  only  com- 


28' 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


peting  wiht  the  high  schools  of  the  state  in  the  matter  of  students,  but 
imposing  a  needless  financial  burden  on  the  state  treasury. 

“Personally  I  am  convinced  that  the  time  is  rapidly  coming  when 
in  all  progressive  states  of  the  Union,  the  normal  schools  will  relegate 
work  of  secondary  grade  to  the  high  school.” 


MAINE,  FARMINGTON 

STATE  NORMAL  AND  TRAINING  COLLEGE 

President  W.  G.  Mallet:  “If  we  can  have  state  law  by  which 

superintendents  must  recognize  with  better  wages  and  higher  grade 
certificates  those  who  have  done  the  normal  school  course  of  two  or 
four  years,  I  would  then  favor  an  increased  amount  of  preparation,  sa> 
four  years,  but  not  without  such  a  law. 

“I  wish  very  much  we  may  bring  that  about  in  this  state  with 
wages  offered  to  graduates  of  four-year  normal  schools  such  as  will 
offer  inducement  to  undertake  it.” 


MASSACHUSETTS,  FITCHBURG 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  John  G.  Thompson:  “I  believe  emphatically  that  the 

normal  school  should  offer  four-year  courses  leading  to  a  degree.” 


MASSACHUSETTS,  HYANNIS 
HYANNIS  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  W.  A.  Baldwin:  “In  regard  to  the  length  of  courses. 
I  believe  as  follows:  As  things  are  now  constituted,  the  two-year, 
three-year  and  four-year  courses  should  be  offered,  and  students .  who 
are  more  promising  intellectually  should  be  encouraged  to  take  the 
longer  courses.  Mediocre  students  should  be  encouraged  to  return  for 
postgraduate  work  after  teaching  for  a  year  or  two,  or  to  summer 
sessions  on  each  succeeding  summer.” 


MASSACHUSETTS,  LOWELL 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Clarence  M.  Weed,  Acting  Principal,  writes:  “I  think 
the  principals  of  the  Massachusetts  normal  schools  are  all  in  favor 
of  lengthening  the  course  and  eventually  of  making  it  a  four-year  course 
and  granting  a  degree,  with  the  emphasis  always  upon  the  professional 
side.” 


MASSACHUSETTS,  WORCESTER 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Wm.  B.  Aspinwall:  “I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  a  normal 
school  course  of  four  years.  During  the  past  winter  I  was  chairman 
of  a  committee  of  the  Principals  of  the  Normal  Schools  of  this  State 
appointed  to  investigate  this  matter  and  make  recommendations.  En¬ 
closed  is  a  copy  of  our  report.  Although  no  definite  action  has  been 
taken  by  our  State  Department  of  Education,  this  report  has  been 
endorsed  by  the  School  Superintendents  of  the  State  and  by  the  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Schoolmasters’  Club,  so  that  we  feel  that  there  is  a  growing 
sentiment  in  favor  of  such  a  change.” 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


29 


MICHIGAN,  KALAMAZOO 
WESTERN  STATE  NORMAL 

President  D.  B.  Waldo:  “The  normal  schools  of  Michigan  all  have 
a  four-year  course.  Three  of  the  schools  were  put  on  the  four-year 
basis  only  two  years  ago.  Every  member  of  our  faculty,  so  far  as 
I  know,  is  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  the  four-year  course.  The  pres¬ 
ence  of  even  a  small  minority  who  are  working  for  the  A.  B.  degree 
is  helpful  in  many  ways.  Inasmuch  as  high  schools  are  constantly 
calling  on  us  for  teachers,  we  could  hardly  be  fair  to  them  if  our 
students  were  all  on  the  two-year  basis. 

“Law,  medicine,  engineering,  etc.,  are  on  the  professional  basis — 
why  not  put  teaching  on  this  same  basis,  and  expect  at  least  a  con¬ 
siderable  percentage  of  normal  school  graduates  to  represent  four  years 
of  training  beyond  the  high  school.” 


MICHIGAN,  MARQUETTE 
NORTHERN  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  James  H.  Kaye:  “In  regard  to  the  normal  school  ex¬ 
tending  four  years  beyond  the  high  school  I  have  always  been  in  favor 
of  having  a  course  for  all  classes  of  teachers.  A  normal  school  ought 
to  train  every  class  of  teacher,  including  high  school  teachers.  To  do 
this,  it  requires  a  four-year  course.  We  have  such  a  course  started. 
So  far  we  have  only  graduated  three  from  that  course,  but  we  expect 
to  have  more  graduates  from  now  on.” 


MINNESOTA,  DULUTH 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  E.  W.  Bohannon:  “As  to  the  desirability  of  placing  the 
courses  in  the  normal  schools  on*  a  four-year  basis  I  have  to  say  that 
we  have  recently  asked  our  own  board  to  appeal  to  the  legislature  for 
authority  to  grant  a  degree  in  Education  in  order  that  we  may  offer 
such  a  course.  We  endeavored  some  years  ago  to  have  such  legislation 
enacted,  but  were  unsuccessful,  more  or  less  because  of  the  opposition 
of  the  State  University  and  the  denominational  colleges  in  the  state. 
I  believe  very  earnestly  that  the  normal  schools  should  be  authorized 
to  do  four  years  of  work.  They  cannot  possibly  meet  the  requirements 
for  the  training  of  elementary  teachers  which  prevail  or  ought  to 
prevail  unless  they  offer  more  extended  courses.  Two  years  is  to'i 
short  a  time  in  which  to  train  a  teacher,  and  all  of  the  supervisory 
positions  in  elementary  work  call  for  a  more  extended  period  of  train¬ 
ing  than  most  of  us  are  now  able  to  offer.  As  a  consequence  many  of 
these  people  are  trained  in  other  institutions  which  are  much  less 
qualified  chan  the  normal  schools  are  to  do  the  work.  Furthermore 
two  years  is  too  short  a  period  in  which  to  develop  the  spirit,  the 
atmosphere  or  traditions  which  play  so  large  a  part  in  carrying  the 
gains  of  the  succeeding  years  along  to  those  who  may  follow.” 


MINNESOTA,  MANKATO 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  C.  H.  Cooper:  “We  have  on  paper  a  three-year  course 
beyond  the  high  school,  but  there  is  no  special  inducement  for  students 
to  take  this  course  and  it  is  not  successful.  We  are  hoping  to  get 
authority  to  establish  a  four-year  course  leading  to  a  degree  in  Educa¬ 
tion  with  the  idea  of  training  solely  for  the  more  important  positions 
in  the  field  of  elementary  education.  We  have  no  thought  of  training 
high  school  teachers.” 


30 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


MINNESOTA,  WINONA 

WINONA  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  G.  E.  Maxwell:  “I  am  decidedly  in  favor  of  elementary 
teachers  extending  their  course  to  one  of  four  years.  There  certainly 
is  no  reason  why  the  leaders,  if  not  the  regular  teachers,  in  elementary 
education  should  not  have  the  same  effective  education  and  professional 
training  and  skill  as  teachers  in  the  high  school.  To  be  sure,  the  normal 
must  not  lose  its  primary  problem  of  preparation  of  elementary  teachers, 
but  at  the  same  time  its  possibilities  of  growth  should  not  be  limited 
within  the  confines  of  the  two-year  curriculum.” 


MISSOURI,  CAPE  GIRARDEAU 

SOUTHEAST  MISSOURI  STATE  TEACHERS  COLLEGE 

President  W.  S.  Dearmont :  “The  normal  schools  and  teachers 

colleges  should  by  no  means  limit  their  work  to  two  years  above  a  high 
school  course.  They  should  by  all  means  be  standard  four  year  colleges 
offering  degrees.  There  is  every  reason  for  their  offering  a  four-year 
course,  and  no  legitimate  objection  to  their  doing  so.  A  four-year 
college  course  is  not  too  much  to  demand  of  all  teachers  in  the  public 
schools,  both  in  the  elementary  grades  and  in  the  high  school.” 


MISSOURI,  MARYVILLE 
STATE  TEACHERS  COLLEGE 

President  Ira  Richardson:  “Our  experience,  with  the  four-year 

course,  as  president  and  my  previous  experience  in  normal  schools  as 
instructor,  convinces  me  that  normal  schools  and  teachers  colleges  are 
falling  short  of  their  obligations  to  the  children  of  our  country  if  they 
fail  to  establish  four  years  of  training  as  a  standard  preparation  for 
teacher  training  for  any  phases  of  the  public  school  work.  We  may 
be  compelled  to  continue  shorter  programs  by  legal  limitations,  but 
I  am  very  decided  in  my  opinion  as  to  the  need  of  all  teachers  having 
four  years  of  training  with  special  application  to  the  field  which  the. 
are  to  serve.” 


MISSOURI,  SPRINGFIELD 

SOUTHWEST  MISSOURI  STATE  TEACHERS  COLLEGE 

President  Clyde  M.  Hill  writes:  “The  legislature  of  Missouri,  upon 
the  request  of  the  presidents  of  the  normal  schools  in  this  state,  changed 
all  of  them  to  teachers  colleges  in  1919,  and  gave  us  the  degree  granting 
privilege.  It  goes  without  saying,  therefore,  that  I  consider  that  less 
than  four  years’  training  is  unsatisfactory  for  teachers  in  any  line  of 
work.  Please  note  the  statement  under  ‘College  Work’  on  p.  19  of 
the  bulletin.” 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  KEENE 
THE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Wallace  E.  Mason:  “In  regard  to  the  four-year  course. 
I  am  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  it  as  you  will  see  by  our  catalogue. 
We  have  five  three-year  courses  in  operation  now.  .  .We  are  working 
for  the  extension  of  the  three-year  courses  with  degrees.  You  could 
get  helpful  suggestions  from  the  Rhode  Island  Normal  School,  which 
has  just  taken  this  step.” 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


31 


NEW  MEXICO,  LAS  VEGAS 

NEW  MEXICO  NORMAL  UNIVERSITY 

President  Frank  H.  H.  Roberts:  “I  think,  without  any  question, 
the  normal  schools  should  have  a  four-year  course.  This  institution 
is  making  a  brave  fight  and  winning  all  along  the  line.  The  only  place 
to  prepare  teachers  is  in  a  normal  school.  The  state  institution  cannot 
duplicate  the  religious  and  democratic  spirit  as  the  normal  schools  can.” 


NEW  MEXICO,  SILVER  CITY 

THE  NEW  MEXICO  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  W.  O.  Hall:  “I  see  no  reason  why  the  normal  schools 
should  not  do  four  years’  work  leading  to  a  degree,  the  emphasis,  as 
you  state,  is  put  on  the  training  of  teachers,  which  is  a  legitimate 
function  of  the  normal  schools.  We  offer  four-year  courses  in  the  state  of 
Mexico.’  ’ 


NEW  YORK,  ALBANY 

NEW  YORK  STATE  COLLEGE  FOR  TEACEHERS 

President  A.  R.  Brubacher:  ‘‘You  ask  a  difficult  question*regarding 
the  four-year  normal  school  or  college  normal  as  you  designate  it. 
Perhaps  my  position  will  be  clear  when  I  say  that  I  believe  it  would 
be  folly  to  have  a  four-year  course  which  consists  almost  exclusively 
of  professional  work.  On  Ihe  other  hand,  if  the  four-year  course  means 
two  full  years  of  informational  and,  cultural  courses,  followed  or  accom¬ 
panied  by  two  years  of  professional  work,  then  I  am  heartily  in  favor 
of  it.  Perhaps  it  goes  without  saying  that  I  do  not  believe,  with  many 
others,  that  professional  courses  also  have  cultural  value  to  the  same 
extent  that  the  regular  courses  offered  by  liberal  large  colleges  have.” 


NEW  YORK,  BROCKPORT 

STATE  NORMAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL 

President  Alfred  C.  Thompson:  ‘‘We  are  in  favor  of  as  many  years 
of  normal  school  work  beyond  high  school  as  possible.  It  is  certainly 
advisable  for  every  teacher  to  have  all  the  education  possible.  Our 
course  is  now  two  years.  We  are  about  to  adopt  a  three-year  course.” 


NEW  YORK,  CORTLAND 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  AND  TRAINING  SCHOOL 

President  H.  DeW.  DeGroat:  ‘‘It  is  designed  to  extend  the  courses 
of  the  New  York  State  Normal  School  three  years  beyond  the  period 
of  high  school  graduation.  Eventually  the  course  will  go  to  four 
years,  but  these  courses,,  except  special  ones,  will  be  aimed  to  prepare 
the  teachers  for  the  elementary  school  and  not  for  high  school.” 


NEW  YORK,  ONEONTA 

STATE  NORMAL  AND  TRAINING  SCHOOL 

President  P.  J.  Bugbee:  ‘‘There  are  ten  normal  schools  in  this 
state.  Their  field  is  elementary  education  only.  The  high  school  field 
is  occupied  by  the  State  Teachers  College  at  Albany.  For  entrance  to 
the  normal  schools  graduation  from  a  four-year  high  school  course  is 


32 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


required.  The  course-  at  present  is  two  years,  although  the  State  De¬ 
partment  and  the  principals  of  the  various  normal  schools  are  con¬ 
templating  a  three-year  course  in  the  not  distant  future.  This  probably 
will  not  take  place  until  the  attendance  in  the  normal  schools  increases. 
The  attendance  is  about  three-fifths  at  present  of  the  pre-war  regis¬ 
tration.  ”  ;  *  a 


NEW  YORK,  PLATTSBURGH 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Geo.  K.  Hawkins:  “If,  as  is  the  case  in  our  state,  the 
normal  school  diploma  licenses  its  holders  to  teach  only  in  the  elementary 
grades,  in  my  judgment  two  years  beyond  a  high  school  is  sufficiently 
long  for  the  course.  If  the  diploma  should  be  unlimited  in  character, 
then  at  least  three  years  and  possibly  four  should  be  given  to  this 
extended  course  which  naturally  would  involve  a  very  substantial  amount 
of  academic  work.” 


OHIO,  BOWLING  GREEN 

BOWLING  GREEN  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  H.  B.  Williams:  “You  will  see  from  our  catalogue  that 
we  are  offering  both  two-year  diploma  courses  for  elementary  teachers 
and  four-year  degree  courses  for  high  school  teachers.  This  means  that 
we  are  covering  the  field  of  a  teachers  college.  We  believe  strongly 
in  the  four-year  program  for  two  reasons:  first,  the  demand  for  profes¬ 
sionally  trained  high  school  teachers  is  far  in  excess  of  the  output  of 
all  types  of  institutions  which  undertake  to  train  such  teachers.  In  the 
private  foundations  and  state  universities  the  professional  training  of 
secondary  teachers  is  too  often  a  side  issue,  whereas  in  a  professional 
school  the  atmosphere  and  point  of  view  is  distinctively  favorable. 
Second,  even  though  the  demand  for  professionally  trained  secondary 
teachers  should  not  warrant  the  maintenance  of  four-year  courses  in 
a  teacher  training  institution,  the  needs  of  the  two-year  courses  would 
justify  the  maintenance  of  a  four-year  course.  I  am  very  certain  that 
we  could  not  secure  the  type  of  instructors  which  we  have  unless  they 
had  the  opportunity  of  giving  some  advanced  courses.  I  consider  this 
reason  very  significant.  I  am  very  much  interested  in  the  problem 
upon  which  you  are  working  and  shall  be  glad  to  receive  any  informa¬ 
tion  that  you  may  print  as  a  result  of  your  study.” 


OHIO,  KENT 

KENT  STATE  NORMAL  COLLEGE 

President  John  E.  McGilvrey:  “We  believe  that  the  normal  school 
should  extend  its  two-year  course  to  four  years  as  soon  as  conditions 
in  its  particular  field  will  permit.  The  benefits  resulting  from  the 
reaction  of  the  student  body  in  the  additional  two  years’  work  on  the 
students  in  the  first  two  years  are  marked.” 


OHIO,  OXFORD 

TEACHERS  COLLEGE  OF  MIAMI  UNIVERSITY 

Dean  H.  C.  Minnich:  “I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  report 
of  Mr.  C.  L.  Allen  made  on  a  number  of  phases  of  education:  one  on 
the  normal  college  or  normal  school,  and  recommending  that  all  our 
normal  schools  be  called  normal  colleges.  A  copy  of  this  report  ma 
be  obtained  by  addressing  Mr.  C.  B.  Galbreath,  Acting  Secretary  of  the 
Joint  Legislative  Committee  on  Administrative  Reorganization,  Colum¬ 
bus,  Ohio.” 


MAYV1LLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


33 


OKLAHOMA,  WEATHERFORD 
SOUTHWESTERN  STATE  NORMAL  . 

President)  J.  B.  Eskridge  writes:  “In  January  of  the  present  year 
the  Board  of  Education  voted  to  make  colleges  out  of  our  normal 
schools,  and  we  are  adding  two  years  more  to  the  curriculum.  We  put 
the  emphasis,  of  course,  on  teacher  training.  It  seems  to  me  this  is 
the  only  hope  of  our  normal  schools,  most  especially  in  our  part  of 
the  country.” 


PENNSYLVANIA,  BLOOMSBURG 
BLOOMSBURG  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  C.  H.  Fisher:  “Some  of  our  Pennsylvania  normal  schools 
will  very  likely  become  four-year  institutions  within  a  few  years,  witn 
authority  to  grant  degrees.  Which  schools  will  became  four-year  schools 
will  depend  partly  on  their  geographical  location,  but  what  is  even 
more  important,  on  the  facilities  which  they  can  command  for  student 
teaching.  A  number  of  our  schools  are  located  in  remote  places,  away 
from  centers  of  population.  .  .Such  institutions  are  likely  to  remain 
two-year  institutions,  but  may  add  another  year. ...” 


PENNSYLVANIA,  INDIANA 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  John  A.  Keith:  “As  far  back  as  1S92,  the  normal 
schools  of  the  country  were  attempting  to  standardize  their  work  to 
the  equivalent  of  two  years  beyond  graduation  from  a  four-year  high 
school.  Twenty-eight  years  have  elapsed  since  that  time  and  except 
in  a  few*  cases  the  standards  of  the  training  of  teachers  for  the  elemen¬ 
tary  grades  have  not  advanced.  My  feeling  is  that  these  standards 
should  have  advanced  in  the  interval.  Society  has  advanced,  industry 
has  advanced,  everything  seems  to  have  moved  forward  at  a  more  rapid 
rate  than  education  has  moved  forward.  This  lagging  behind  has  been 
due  in  part  to  the  lack  of  leadership  in  normal  schools,  and  in  part 
to  the  unwillingness  to  pay  taxes  on  the  part  of  political  parties  which 
must  seek  reelection. 

‘  ‘The  high  schools  are  parts  of  the  public  school  system.  In  fact, 
the  high  schools  the  country  over,  except  in  the  East,  were  organized 
and  fathered  by  normal  school  graduates.  In  the  East  the  high  school 
seems  to  have  been  developed  from  the  academy  and  the  college  man 
and  the  academy  man  have  been  in  the  saddle  from  the  first.  The  normal 
schools  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  resume  and  expand  the  training  of  high 
school  teachers.  This  ought  to  be  in  four-year  courses  with  degrees.  The 
teachers  of  special  subjects  such  as  music,  drawing,  manual  training, 
domestic  science,  physical  education,  commercial  subjects,  agriculture, 
etc.,  should  be  required  to  spend  three  years  in  training  and  later  four 
years.  All  normals  should  conduct  differentiated  curricula  after  the 
manner  of  the  curriculum  for  the  training  of  special  teachers  in  order 
that  they  might  effectively  prepare  teachers  for  rural  schools,  primary 
grades,  kindergarten,  immediate  grades,  and  junior  high  schools.  The 
junior  high  school  curriculum  should  be  made  three  years  in  length  at 
once  and  before  another  ten  years  have  passed,  it  should  go  to  four 
years.  The  other  curricula  should  remain  at  two  years  until  such 
time  as  the  normal  schools  of  the  country  have  gotten  inside  of  the 
demand  for  teachers.  You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  this  is  the 
direction  in  which  we  are  now  moving  in  Pennsylvania,  with  the  support 
of  the  new  superintendent  of  public  instruction  and  the  Governor.” 


34 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


PENNSYLVANIA,  KUTZTOWN 
KEYSTONE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  A.  C.  Rothermel:  “There  is  a  movement  in  our  state  to 
transform  our  normal  schools  into  normal  colleges.  I  am  personally 
not  sure  whether  in  the  beginning  we  should  require  all  those  who  take 
the  normal  course  to  remain  for  the  four-year  course,  but  I  am  pretty 
definitely  decided  that  ultimately  this  is  what  should  happen.  I  am 
of  the  conviction  too  that  there  should  be  a  reasonable  amount  of 
academic  work  in  the  third  and  fourth  years  of  the  normal  course 
after  the  schools  have  been  converted  into  normal  colleges.  There  is 
a  scarcity  of  high  school  teachers  in  our  state  and  the  average  college 
does  little  to  give  teachers  an  adequate  professional  training  for  teach¬ 
ing  in  a  high  school.  I  cannot  quite  understand  why  the  high  school 
teachers  should  have  less  of  professional  training  than  the  grade  teacher 
and  yet  that  is  true,  I  judge,  in  most  of  the  states  today.’’ 


PENNSYLVANIA,  MANSFIELD 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  William  R.  Straughn:  “Our  normal  school  course  in 
Pennsylvania  is  two  years  beyond  the  high  school,  but  I  am  personally 
very  much  in  favor  of  a  four-year  course  leading  to  a  degree.  I  am 
also  in  favor  of  retaining  the  present  two-year  course  for  those  who 
expect  to  teach  in  the  graded  and  ungraded  schools,  but  offering  the 
four-year  course,  which  would  be  two  years  beyond  the  two-year 
course,  to  those  who  may  want  to  prepare  for  high  school  teaching. 

“To  my  mind,  in  order  to  dignify  the  teaching  profession  properly, 
and  to  have  a  real  claim  on  public  support,  our  normal  schools  ought  to 
be  on  an  equal  basis\  with  colleges.  If  we  do  not  do  this,  it  is  going 
to  be  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  normals  will  pass  out  of 
existence.’  ’ 


PENNSYLVANIA,  MILLER, SVILLE 
MILLERSVILLE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  C.  H.  Gardiner:  “All  of  our  normal  schools  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  are  owned  and  operated  by  the  State,  and  the  work  is  quite 
uniform.  At  present  the  course  in  each  school  calls  for  two  years  in' 
addition  to  four  years  of  high  school  work,  but  we  are  considering  the 
advisability  of  also  putting  in  a  four-year  course  for  those  that  wish 
to  specialize  along  special  lines.  Just  how  soon  this  will  come  I  do 
not  know,  though  some  schools  have  already  made  a  beginning. 

‘  ‘Educational  matters  in  Pennsylvania  are  in  a  wonderful  state  of 
transition  owing  to  the  entire  reorganization  of  the  State  Department 
of  Education  with  the  new  superintendent  and  entire  new  force.  It 
will  take  us  a  year  or  two  to  settle  down,  but  if  the  present  plans 
materialize,  this  state  will  make  wonderful  strides  within  the  next  few 
years.’’ 


PENNSYLVANIA,  SHIPPENSBURG 
CUMBERLAND  VALLEY  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Ezra  Lehman:  “We  expect  to  extend  our  normal  school 
course  to  four  years  beyond  high  school  in  the  near  future.  Personally 
I  believe  that  the  normal  schools  should  be  raised  to  the  rank  of 
teachers  colleges  and  that  they  should  give  regular  degrees  in  educa¬ 
tion  on  the  completion  of  a  four-year  course. 

“I  also  believe  that  the  two-year  course  should  be  retained.  Our 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


35 


special  field,  after  all,  is  the  preparation  of  teachers  for  the  elemental- 
schools,  and  a  four-year  course  would  deter  many  high  school  graduates 
from  beginning  the  work.  On  the  other  hand  I  realize  that  if  teachin 
is  to  be  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  profession  it  must  demand  very 
different  qualifications  of  those  who  enter  it.  Certainly  every  principal 
and  supervisor  should  have  more  than  a  two-year  course. 

“The  ordinary  college  is  neither  qualified  nor  inclined  to  give  - 
course  of  this  kind.  Hence  I  believe  that  it  is  incumbent  upon  the 
normal  schools  to  take  up  this  work.  The  four-year  course  should 
coordinate  definitely  with  the  two-year  course  so  that  if  a  student 
desires  to  finish  the  work  after  teaching  on  a  two-year  certificate  sh' 
can  return  to  school  and  take  up  the  advanced  work  without  loss  of 
time.” 


PENNSYVANIA,  SLIPPERY  ROCK 

THE  SLIPPERY  ROCK  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  J.  Linwood  Eisenberg:  “I  believe  that  the  normal  schools 
should  as  soon  as  possible  throughout  the  country  arrange  to  give 
addition  to  the  two-year  course  after  high  school  graduation,  a  four-yeav 
course  leading  to  a  degree  in  education  with  special  emphasis  upon 
training  of  teachers.  Part  of  our  program  in  Pennsylvania  is  to  move 
in  this  direction  as  fast  as  possible  by  permission  through  legislation. 

“We  have  just  in  the  last  year  made  high  school  graduation 
requirement  for  entrance  into  the  normal  school.  The  work,  of  course 
in  the  normal  school  should  be  of  college  grade  in  thoroughness 
intensity  at  all  times.  I  think  one  of  the  failures  of  the  normal  schools 
in  the  past  has  been  the  failure  to  make  the  work  thorough.’’ 


PENNSYLVANIA,  WEST  CHESTER 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Andrew  T.  Smith:  “I  would  express  my  definite  con¬ 
viction  that  for  the  preparation  of  elementary  school  teachers,  two  yea 
of  normal  school  training,  based  upon  college  entrance  preparation,  seems 
f°  me  entirely  adequate  to  fit  an  individual  to  grow  in  the  teaching 
profession,  and  that  is  about  all  we  can  reasonably  hope  to  secure. 
An  idea  that  is  growing  generally  throughout  Pennsylvania,  is  that  in 
due  time  we  shall  establish  a  four-year  course  in  our  present  normal 
schools,  this  course  being  designed  to  prepare  teachers  for  second- 
schools.  If  that  comes,  the  likelihood  is  that  the  present  schools  will 
be  called  Junior  Colleges  for  Teachers,  and  the  four-year  course  ti  e 
Senior  College  for  Teachers.  .  ,** 


SOUTH  CAROLINA,  ROCK  HILL 
WINTHROP  COLLEGE 

President  D.  B.  Johnson:  “We  have  been  giving  a  four-year  course 
of  study  and  awarding  the  degree  of  A.  B.  and  B.  S.  for  over  twenty 
years.  I  think  this  usage  of  ours  will  speak  better  for  my  opinion 
ot  the  four  years  work  leading  to  a  degree  than  anything  else  I  ca 
say.  1  he  plan  has  worked  admirably  with  us.’’ 


36 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


SOUTH  DAKOTA,  ABERDEEN 

SOUTH  DAKOTA  NORMAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL 

President  H.  W.  Foght:  “...This  year  we  have  added  a  third 
and  fourth  year  beyond  the  high  school  graduation,  making  a  full-fledged 
teachers  college.  About  forty  young  people  have  entered  the  uppc 
classes,  as  a  result  of  which  we  will  be  able  to  graduate  a  group  o 
nine  or  ten  people  in  the  Senior  Teachers  College  next  spring.  .  . 

“I  believe  with  all  my  heart  in  the  teachers  college.  I  was  instru¬ 
mental  in  getting  this  school  changed  from  a  two-year  normal  school  to 
a  four-year  teachers  college,  which  is  all  the  argument  you  need  from 
me  as  to  whether  or  not  I  favor  the  four-year  institution.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  I  am  absolutely  confident  that  we  will  never  solve  the  problem 
of  getting  professionally  trained  teachers  until  we  get  them  to  invest 

more  time  and  more  money  in  preparation  for  their  life  work . 

“A  state  like  yours  is  now  old  enough  and  rich  enough  to  do  the 
right  thing  by  its  schools  and  certainly  it  ought  to  be  done,  and  now.’’ 


SOUTH  DAKOTA,  SPRINGFIELD 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  C.  G.  Lawrence:  “The  work  in  our  school  is  limited  to 
two  years  above  high  school,  but  we  are  hoping  that  in  the  near  future 
we  will  be  permitted  to  add  two  more  years  to  our  course  and  thus 

become  a  teachers  college . It  seems  to  me  that  this  extension  of 

courses  in  the  normal  schools  is  absolutely  necessary  if  the  normal 
schools  are  to  be  permitted  to  do  more  effective  work  in  preparing  teachers 
for  our  public  schools.  In  fact,  it  seems  almost  imperative  that  the 
courses  should  be  extended  to  four  years  beyond  the  high  school  be¬ 
cause  the  recent  state  law  limits  the  graduates  of  the  normal  school 
with  two  years  above  the  high  school  in  grades  below  the  tenth .  .  . 
Unless  we  are  permitted  to  extend  our  course  to  four  years  within 
the  near  future  our  schools  cannot  expect  to  grow  because  many  who 
expect  to  prepare  for  teaching  will  select  a  teachers  college  rather  thar 
a  normal  school  with  a  limited  course.” 


TEXAS,  CANYON 

THE  WEST  TEXAS  STATE  NORMAL  COLLEGE 

President  J.  A.  Hill:  “As  to  the  length  of  the  normal  school  cour 
above  high  school,  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  in  Texas  that  in 
order  to  adequately  prepare  teachers  for  any  grades  of  the  common 
schools,  a  four-year  college  course  strongly  emphasizing  teacher  traini  ' 
is  necessary.  We  believe  thgt  for  kindergarten,  primary,  and  grade 
teachers  a  four-year  course  of  training  is  just  as  essential  as  it  : 
for  high  school  teachers.  Indeed,  the  Grade  Teachers’  Association  o* 
Texas  requested  the  normal  school  to  give  a  training  course  for  grade 
teachers,  leading  to  a  degree,  in  every  sense  of  the  word  equivalent  to 
a  standard  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree. 

“The  teaching  profession  must  impress  itself  upon  the  public  as 
a  body  of  trained  experts.” 


TEXAS,  COMMERCE 

THE  EAST  TEXAS  STATE  NORMAL  COLLEGE 

President  S.  H.  Whitley:  “It  is  my  deliberate  and  candid  opinion 
that  the  course  of  study  for  normal  colleges'  should  cover  four  years 
of  college  work  leading  to  a  degree  in  education.  My  conclusion  wit*1 
respect  to  this  propisition  is  based  largely  on  the  belief  that  training 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


37 


for  elementary  teaching  positions  should  he  put  on  as  high  a  level  as 
training  for  teaching  in  secondary  positions.  By  offering  four  years 
of  work  of  college  rank,  normalj  colleges  may  easily  place  the  prepara¬ 
tion  of  teachers  for  elementary  positions  on  the  same  level  as  that  for 
secondary  positions  which  has  been  emphasized  for  a  long  time.” 


TEXAS,  SAN  MARCOS 

SOUTHWEST  TEXAS  STATE  NORMAL  COLLEGE 

President  C.  E.  Evans:  ‘‘I  am  strongly  of  the  conviction  that  the 
normal  schools  must  offer  four  years  of  work  of  college  rank  leading 
to  the  Bachelor’s  degree.  Unless  the  normal  colleges  do  so,  they  will 
soon  lose  ambitious  and  aspiring  young  men  and  women  from  the  stu¬ 
dent  body.  The  two-year  normal  college  course  does  not  lead  definitely 
anywhere,  unless  it  is  to  a  ‘blind  alley.’ 

”...  Four  years  is  much  more  satisfactory .  .  .  Then,  too,  this  will  tenc 
to  put  the  profession  of  teaching  somewhat  on  a  par  with  law,  medi¬ 
cine,  and  pharmacy.  A  young  man  cannot  now  enter  a  medical  college 
unless  he  has  had  two  years’  work  of  college  rank.  If  normal  colleges 
are  to/  be  permanent  institutions,  they  must  go  to  the  four-year  college 
basis.’  ’ 


TENNESSEE,  JOHNSON  CITY 

EAST  TENNESSEE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Sidney  G.  Gilbreath:  ”For  graduation  three  years’  work 
above  high  school  graduation  is  required.  Those  who  complete  this 
course  are  permitted  to  teach  in  high  schools.  .  .  We  hope  to  add  a  fourth 
year  leading  to  the  granting  of  the  bachelor’s  degree.  We  shall  continue 
to  grant  elementary  teacher’s  license  to  those  who  have  had  two  years 
of  normal  school  training  above  high  school  graduation. 

‘  If  we  are  going  to  make  teaching  a  profession,  the  normal  school 
must  offer  the  best  preparation  for  teaching  that  can  be  given  in  an., 
school.’  ’ 


VIRGINIA,  EAST  RADFORD 

STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN 

President  John  McConnell:  “I  feel  that  two  years  upon  graduation 
from  a  four-year  high  school  is  hardly  adequate  time  for  the  training 
of  teachers.  I  do  not  think  well  of  the  three-year  course.  If  we 
extend  our  course  longer  than  two  years  it  will  be,  in  my  judgment, 
necessary  to  make  it  a  four-year  course.” 


WASHINGTON,  CHENEY 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

Secretary  to  President:  “I  may  say  that  the  Cheney  Normal  School 
is  now  a  normal  college  carrynig  the  four  years  of  work  beyond  hign 
school  graduation.  President  Showaltsr  is  very  much  in  favor  of  the 
plan. 

“In  explanation  I  may  say  that  our  two  vears  of  upper  colleg 
work  is  arranged  on  the  regular  collegiate  plan  of  choosing  a  major 
and  a  minor  to  be  worked  out  fully  through  special  departments.  The 
lower  half  of  the  normal  school  work  is  so  arranged  that  it  will  lead 
to  an  elementary  diploma  at  the  end  of  two  years.  This  is  done  in 
order  to  keep  the  schools  supplied  with  teachers  and  to  make  natural 


38 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 


break  in  the  work  at  the  middle  of  the  four-year  period.  The  two 
college  years  are  worked  out  more  completely  because  of  the  need& 
which  the  teachers  must  prepare  to  meet. 

‘‘You  will  note  from  the  sheet  which  I  am  sending  to  you  that 
there  is  a  regular  core  of  such  matter  required  of  all  courses.  Then 
there  is  a  differentiated  core  required  for  different  courses  within  the 
two  years.  We  find  that  this  plan  works  out  very  well  and  that  every 
year  larger  and  still  larger  numbers  of  our  students  return  for  the 
upper  college  work.  With  the  new  plan  which  provides  that  teachers, 
elementary  and  high  school,  shall  receive  the  same  salary  based  upon 
equal  preparation  and  experience  has  proven  to  be  a  great  stimulus 
to  the  elementary  teacher  to  work  on  through  the  advanced  courses 
President  Showalter  believes  that  every  State  in  the  Union  should 
adopt  such  a  plan  and  believes  it  .to  be  commendable  that  the  normal 
schools  of  the  country  lead  out  in  this  recommendation.” 


WASHINGTON.  ELLENSBURG 
WASHINGTON  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  George  H.  Black:  ‘‘Replying  to  your  direct  inquiry  con¬ 
cerning  the  four-year  course,  I  wish  to  say  that  the  normal  schools 
of  Washington  are  now  offering  two-year,  three-year  and  four-year 
courses  for  high  school  graduates.  Conditions  may  differ  in  differen 
states  as  to  the  demand  for  such  courses.  We  find  that  teachers  of 
experience,  especially  those  teaching  in  city  schools,  are  beginning  to 
demand  a  four-year  course  in  our  state,  and  probably  in  the  next  three 
or  four  years  we  shall  see  a  decided  movement  toward  a  four-year 
normal  course.  Such  courses  are  already  offered  in  a  majority  of  the 
normal  schools  of  the  United  States.” 


WEST  VIRGINIA,  HUNTINGTON 
MARSHALL  COLLEGE 

President  F.  R.  Hamilton:  ‘‘Marshall  College  offers  this  year  for 
the  first  time  the  four-year  college  course.  The  conditions  in  this 
state  certainly  justify  the  organization  of  work  in  this  institution  on 
a  four-year  college  basis.” 


WISCONSIN,  LA  CROSSE 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  F.  A.  Cotton:  ‘‘Our  Board  is  just  now  consindering  the 

advisability  of  organizing  four-year  courses  in  all  of  the  normal  schools 
of  the  state.  The  Attorney  General  recently  decided  that  under  the 
normal  school  laws,  the  board  is  authorized  to  establish  four-year 
courses.  All  of  the  schools  now  have  three-year  courses,  and  it  is 
possible  that  during  the  next  year  or  two  four-year  courses  will  be 
established.’  ’ 


WISCONSIN,  MILWAUKEE 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Carroll  Gardner  Pearse:  ‘‘We  are  now  in  Wisconsin 
making  every  possible  effort  to  establish  full  courses,  four  years  in 
length  beyond  high  school.  I  believe  that  every  progressive  state 
will  do  this  within  a  few  years.  All  state  normal  schools  should  be 
teachers  colleges  with  courses  four  years  in  length  beyond  high  school 
and  the  privilege  of  giving  the  appropriate  degree  in  education  to  stu¬ 
dents  who  complete  such  a  course.” 


MAYVILLE,  NORTH  DAKOTA 


39 


WISCONSIN,  OSHKOSH 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  H.  A.  Brown:  “The  state  normal  schools  of  Wisconsin 
are  not  giving  four-year  courses  at  this  time,  but  a  strong  effort  is  bein' 
made  by  the  presidents  of  the  normal  schools  to  secure  these  courses 
and  the  granting  of  degrees  at  an  early  date.  We  are  hoping  to  pi 
this  through  this  year.  We  have  a  three-year  course  for  high  school 
teachers  and  a  three-year  industrial  course,  and  our  other  courses  are 
two  years  in  length. 

“I  am  firm  in  the  conviction  that  the  normal  schools  should  give 
four-year  courses  with  degrees,  but  I  am  equally  firm  in  the  belief 
that  the  work  of  normal  schools  in  this  case  shall  be  strictly  work 
of  university  grade,  both  as  to  quality  and  quantity.  1  fear  that  a 
good  deal  of  the  normal  school  work  at  the  present  time  could  not 
qualify  in  this  respect.” 


WISCONSIN,  SUPERIOR 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  V.  E.  McCaskill :  “I  might  say  that  we  do  not  lia,v^ 
a  four-year  normal  course.  We  are .  hoping  that  the  legislature  will 
look  favorably  upon  such  a  proposition  for  the  next  two  years.  My 
own  personal  opinion  is  that  there  is  no  reaison  why  the  normal  schoo1' 
should  not  do  four  years  ’  of  work.  I  believe  they  can  do  it  and  do 
it  as  thoroughly  as  can  be  done  by  the  great  universities.” 


-o- 


Extracts  from  Letters  of  Normal  School 
Presidents  Averse  to  a  Four-year  Course 
above  High  School  Graduation 
in  Normal  Schools 


ALABAMA,  FLORENCE 
STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  Henry  J.  Willingham:  “It  is  the  business  of  the  normal 
school  to  serve  its  territory  regardless  of  all  other  questions.  Each 
institution,  or  those  managing  it,  must  determine  whether  that  service 
can  be  best  rendered  through!  a  two-year  course  or  a  four-year  course. 

“In  most;  parts  of  the  South  a  two-year  course  is  all  we  can  offer 
yet  if  we  are  to  reach  the  average  village  school  with  our  graduates. 
If  we  were  to  give  them  a  four-year  course  they  would  never  enter  as 
a  teacher  anything  less  than  the  very  best  and  highest-paid  teachiiv 
places  in  the  state.  The  average  grade  position,  therefore,  would  never 
know  what  a  normal  school  graduate  looks  like.  This  condition  does 
not  obtain,  I  am  sure,  in  a.  good  many  other  states  and  a  great  man> 
other  sections  of  still  other  states.” 


ARIZONA,  TEMPE 

TEMPE  NORMAL  SCHOOL  OF  ARIZONA 

President  A.  J.  Matthews:  “...So  far  as  we  are  concerned  I 
would  not  be  in,  favor  of  it  [extending  course  to  four  years],  as  we 
have  such  a  small  population  and  our  university  is  not  overcrowded. 
Such  a  course  for  us  would  undoubtedly  hold  a  few  people,  but  not  in 
sufficient  numbers  to  justify  the  expense. 


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KENTUCKY,  RICHMOND 

EASTERN  KENTUCKY  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  T.  J.  Coates:  “We  are  of  the  opinion  that  this  institution 
should  devote  its  entire  time  to  the  first  two  years’  college  work.  With 
the  money  we  have  to  spend,  we  feel  that  we  must  think  quantitatively. 
We  feel  that  we  must  devote  our  entire  time  to  the  work  of  furnishing 
teachers  with  two  years’  high  school  work. 

“I  understand  fully  that  there  are  arguments  for  the  full  four 
years’  college  work  for  the  training  of  teachers.  Some  day  we  may 
advance  to  that  point,  hut  we  do  not  feel  that  we  are  prepared  for 
it  yet.’’ 


MISSISSIPPI,  HATTIESBURG 
MISSISSIPPI  NORMAL  COLLEGE 

President  Joe  Cook:  “I... believe  that  the  normal  school  should 
continue  with  two  years  of  college  work,  the  completion  of  which 
is  evidenced  by  a  diploma,  and  leave  the  granting  of  degrees  to  colleges 
organized  for  such  work. 

“Personally,  I  believe  in  a  three  years’  high  school  and  above 
that  a  three  years’  college  course  leading  to  a  degree... 

“The  normal  school  giving  two  years’  college  work  has  already 
demonstrated  its  usefulness,  and  I  believe  ’that  usefulness  would  be 
destroyed  if  the  normal  school  should  undertake  to  enter  the  field  of 
the  regular  college.  I  know  that  there  is  an  argument  that  the  normal 
school  can  continue  to  give  a  diploma  upon  the  completion  of  two 
years’  college  work,  and  thereby  be  relieved  of  the  hurt  that  comes 
from  the  taunt  of  the  regular  college.  However,  if  such  a  course  should 
be  followed,  the  student  .would  never  feel  that  he  had  completed  the 
normal  school  upon  receiving  a  diploma,  the  value  of  the  diploma  would 
be  depreciated,  and  the  spirit  of  the  normal  school,  which  in  my  opinion 
is  the  most  valuable  asset  in  the  school  work  of  the  nation,  would 
be  lost.’’ 


TENNESSEE,  MURFREESBORO 

MIDDLE  TENNESSEE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

President  P.  A.  Lyon:  “You  will  observe  that  our  course  of  study 
extends  three  years  beyond  a  high  school  course.  This  is  the  first 
year  we  have  tried  this,  and  we  have  not  tried  it  sufficiently  to  de¬ 
termine  about  the  results...  I  doubt  if  we  should  enter  into  competition 
with  the  state  universities,  by  giving  the  four-year  course  leading  to 
a  degree.  .  .We  believe  this  is  the  best  policy  to  pursue.  However,  1 
think  this  depends  on  circumstances,  and  I  have  known  a  number  of 
instances  where  the  normal  schools  gave  the  four-year  course  very 
successfully.’  ’ 


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